In this opening segment of the YouTube episode "Ethics – Short Bites" (Episode #6), moderator Virginie Glaenzer conducts a rapid round‑table introduction of four panelists who will discuss AI ethics, leadership, and commercial culture. Catherine Havasi, a 25‑year AI researcher and MIT‑spun entrepreneur, emphasizes the inseparability of AI and ethics and her interest in fostering ethical leadership in AI firms. John Hagel, head of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, describes his role in surfacing emerging business opportunities for CEOs and highlights his view that a looming economic shift will reshape ethical leadership. Jonathan Cook, a researcher and consultant on commercial culture, explains his focus on the bottom‑up narratives, symbols, myths, and rituals that shape marketplace behavior, noting the tension between rational ethical theory and lived human experience. The segment concludes with a teaser about the final participant, Mia, setting the stage for a broader conversation on AI governance, diversity, and ethical practice.
Before we start this conversation, let's begin as we always do with a tour de table and have each of you tell us your name, what you do, and what you're interested in this topic. Please try to be brief and keep your introduction to about a minute. So let's begin with Catherine.
Hi, I'm Catherine Havasi. I've been working in AI for about 25 years. I'm both a researcher, where I've done a lot of work sort of pushing the research boundary forward, and an entrepreneur where I've spun about 3 different pieces of technology out of my home university, MIT. And I'm very interested in how— you can't talk about AI these days without talking about ethics, and I'm very interested in how AI companies can continue to be ethical leaders moving forward.
Very nice. Thank you. John.
Hi, I'm John Hagel. I run a research center called the Center for the Edge at Deloitte, and our charter is to identify emerging business opportunities that should be on the CEO's agenda but are not, and to do the research necessary to persuade them to put it on the agenda. And I've been in Silicon Valley now for about 40 years. And I'm very interested in the topic because a lot of the research that we've done suggests that we're in the early stages of a big shift that's going to transform the global economy and that it is going to drive a fundamental change in the nature of ethical leadership.
Very exciting. Thank you. Jonathan.
Yeah, my name is Jonathan Cook and I am a researcher and consultant in commercial culture, which is not just about what the leaders decide for us, but what comes from the bottom up. I study the stories, the symbols, the myths and rituals of what people do in the marketplace. And as if we're actually still living as human beings and not as completely rational creatures, which as we begin to discuss ethics, maybe that'll be an interesting way to look at it. I know that ethics in its root can be highly rational and logical coming from the ancient Greeks, and yet we don't live that way, do we?
Exactly. That's a really already interesting question. And finally, our mystery participant or speaker, Mia.
Hi everyone, this is Mia Dan. I'm the CEO of Lighthouse3. We are a research advisory firm based in San Francisco, focused on the applications and ethics of emerging technologies. I'm also the founder of the Women in AI Ethics Initiative, which is focused on recognition of women who work in this, work on the important issues related to ethics of AI. We, I'm the same as John, I've been in Silicon Valley for a long time. I have a corporate background, but Our work stems from the philosophy that any technology that isn't diverse or doesn't include women and diverse perspectives is inherently unethical. So we help organizations, mid to large-sized companies, integrate ethics into everything they do, especially as they adopt artificial intelligence.
