A Philosopher's case against AI

In this episode, Svenia Busson sits down with Dr. Alex Carter, Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, and Director of Creativity Research at the Centre for AI Interaction. Alex holds a PhD in philosophy from Essex — with roots in Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language — and has become one of the UK's most provocative thinkers at the intersection of philosophy, creativity, and AI.His central claim: AI is not creative in the same way we are. Not because it lacks power, but because "AI does not think like us, it thinks like we think we think", it is a mirror of human thought, not thought itself.In this conversation, we explore:🔹 Why AI is fundamentally incapable of creativity — and the philosophical argument behind it🔹 The "race to the middle": as we outsource our thinking to AI, humans get slightly worse while AI appears slightly better, and we meet at mediocrity🔹 Why education systems have been "teaching algorithmically" for decades — long before ChatGPT. AI didn't create the problem; it just made it impossible to ignore🔹 Why AI should make problems for students, not solve them — and what "friction maxing" means for learning🔹 The Gartner Hype Cycle and why reaching the "plateau of productivity" requires a complete rethink of education🔹 The Durham Commission on Creativity (2001) — and why 25 years later, nothing has changed in the UK 🔹 What consciousness really is — and why even the engineers building AI don't fully understand what they've made🔹 Why philosophy should be the connective tissue of every discipline — and why we need more philosophy, not more philosophersReferences & links mentioned in this episode:Alex's website: adcphilosophy.comThe Durham Commission on Creativity and Education: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Durham_Commission_on_Creativity_04112019_0.pdfThe Gartner Hype CyclePISA — now updated to include a creativity assessment (https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/student-performance-pisa.html)Bill Lucas on creativity skills and perseveranceSimone Weil — French philosopher referenced on personalized learningPhilosophy for Children (P4C) by Thoughtful and the PLATO organization