Professor Insight Podcast - AI, Science and Business

Hallucinations are a daily reality in the AI and LLM tools many of us use. In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we explore new research from OpenAI and Georgia Tech titled “Why Language Models Hallucinate.” The findings shed light on why large language models often produce confident but false statements, and why this problem persists even in the most advanced systems.

Listeners will discover how hallucinations begin...

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a support tool in business, it is becoming a core driver of growth and efficiency. In this episode, we explore Google’s new report, The ROI of AI 2025: How Agents Are Unlocking the Next Wave of AI-Driven Business Value. The findings reveal a major shift from asking whether to use AI to focusing on how to scale it effectively. With companies now moving into the agentic era, AI agents are st...

When you receive unexpected news from a company, who delivers it may matter more than the news itself. In this episode, we explore a fascinating study from the Journal of Marketing titled Bad News? Send an AI. Good News? Send a Human. The research, led by Aaron Garvey, TaeWoo Kim, and Adam Duhachek, reveals surprising insights about how consumers react to offers depending on whether they come from a human representative or an AI a...

Artificial intelligence is often celebrated for its breakthroughs in science, business, and daily life, but what about its hidden environmental cost? In this episode, we take a closer look at a new research paper from Google titled Measuring the Environmental Impact of Delivering AI at Google Scale. While training large models has long been seen as the main driver of energy use, the surge in everyday AI adoption means the real focu...

Can AI truly understand how people think, or is it just guessing based on patterns? In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we explore a compelling new study that challenges the growing belief that large language models can stand in for real human participants. Titled Large Language Models Do Not Simulate Human Psychology, the paper examines how models like GPT-4 and CENTAUR handle moral decis...

What if you could peek behind the curtain and see exactly how people are using AI at work right now? In this episode, we dive into an exclusive, unpublished study from Microsoft that does just that. Titled "Working with AI: Measuring the Occupational Implications of Generative AI," the paper analyzes 200,000 real, anonymized conversations between users and Microsoft Bing Copilot to uncover how AI is reshaping the workforce. This is...

In this episode, we explore the results of a major new global study from the University of Melbourne and KPMG titled Trust, Attitudes and Use of Artificial Intelligence: A Global Study 2025. Drawing on the views of more than 48,000 people across 47 countries, this research offers one of the most detailed snapshots to date of how AI is perceived, trusted, and used around the world. It examines differences between advanced and emerg...

Think machines can predict your next move? Think again. In this episode, we dive into one of the most intriguing challenges at the crossroads of psychology, artificial intelligence, and business: can we truly predict what people will choose before they do? We explore the breakthrough research published in Nature Human Behaviour, spotlighting BEAST-GB, a revolutionary model that blends the best of behavioural science with cutting-ed...

Is artificial intelligence the next master persuader? In this episode of Professor Insight Podcast, we dig into one of the most fascinating questions of the digital age: can AI agents actually out-persuade humans? Drawing on a landmark 2023 meta-analysis from the Journal of Communication, we explore the world of AI-powered chatbots, recommendation engines, and digital advisors, asking whether these technologies are quietly winning ...

In this episode, we delve into one interesting findings in the world of AI and science communication. A new study published in Royal Society Open Science, authored by Uwe Peters and Benjamin Chin-Yee, reveals a systematic problem in how large language models summarise scientific research. Even when prompted for accuracy, many LLMs, including the latest versions of ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek, consistently overgeneralise research...

What happens to your brain when you let AI do the thinking for you? In this episode, we explore a fascinating and widely discussed study out of the MIT Media Lab titled Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. This research takes us deep into the cognitive consequences of using large language models like ChatGPT for academic work. Using EEG headsets to monitor brain a...

Is using generative AI more acceptable when you do it yourself than when someone else does it? According to a new study from the Rotterdam School of Management, most of us think so. This episode dives into the fascinating research behind the paper “Acceptability Lies in the Eye of the Beholder”, which explores how we judge AI-assisted work differently depending on who is using the tech. The authors conducted nine studies with near...

Generative AI has captured the world's attention for its power to create, accelerate, and enhance—but what happens when these same tools are misused? In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we turn the spotlight to the darker side of GenAI. Drawing on a groundbreaking new paper from DeepMind titled Generative AI Misuse: A Taxonomy of Tactics and Insights from Real-World Data, we explore nearly 200 real-life cases where ge...

In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we explore what it really takes to build infrastructure capable of supporting generative AI at scale. Based on Google’s 2025 State of AI Infrastructure Report, this conversation cuts through the buzz to focus on the practical realities facing tech and business leaders. From adoption trends to infrastructure strategy, we look at how organizations are navi...

In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we take a closer look at how generative AI is fundamentally changing the way we search for information, products, and services online. With ChatGPT rolling out new shopping features and AI search tools gaining traction, it's clear we're entering a new era of digital discovery. But what does this shift mean for the businesses, marketers, and platforms tha...

In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we dive into the rapidly evolving intersection of artificial intelligence and the legal profession. Drawing from two powerful resources — Prompt Engineering for Lawyers, a joint publication by Microsoft and the Singapore Academy of Law, and the 2024 Future of Professionals Report by Thomson Reuters — we explore how AI is not just automating tasks but redefining the way legal profes...

In this episode, we return to the unfolding debate around AI’s so-called ability to “think.” Building on last week’s discussion of Apple’s controversial paper The Illusion of Thinking, we now explore the equally provocative rebuttal by Anthropic, the company behind Claude. Their paper, pointedly titled The Illusion of the Illusion of Thinking, argues that Apple’s findings say more about poor experimental design than any real limit...

Are today's most advanced AI models really capable of “thinking”? Or are we simply projecting human-like reasoning onto machines that are fundamentally limited in how they solve complex problems? In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we dive into a provocative new paper from Apple titled The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models. It explores how some of the most powerful ...

If you’ve listened to Episodes Five and Six of the Professor Insight Podcast, you’ll know we’ve already laid the groundwork on what Agentic AI is and why it matters. But this week, we’re taking it a step further. This episode is your practical guide to building AI agents—an extension of our earlier discussions, now grounded in real-world application. Based on OpenAI’s newly released Practical Guide to B...