“Generative AI is still a bit like an intoxicated graduate.” — Daniel Hulme

What happens when intelligence stops following instructions — and starts adapting?

In this episode of The AI Lyceum, Samraj speaks with Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP and Founder of Satalia (acquired by WPP), about adaptive intelligence, neuromorphic computing, sustainability, and Protopia — a world that gets a little better every day.

Daniel holds two PhDs — one in emergent intelligence within virtual agents, another decoding how bumblebees think and adapt. His journey spans academia, entrepreneurship, and the philosophy of consciousness.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

0:00 ➤ Intro / Guest Welcome

3:40 ➤ Daniel’s journey: UCL → Satalia → WPP CAIO

6:15 ➤ What is AI? Goal-directed adaptive behaviour

8:21 ➤ Intelligence vs Consciousness

10:22 ➤ The seven “STEEPLE” singularities reshaping humanity

12:19 ➤ Ethics, intent, and “mind crime”

14:34 ➤ Conscious AI & the duty of care to machines

16:43 ➤ “If you could redo your PhD, what and why?”

17:00 ➤ Bumblebee brains, VR illusions & emergent agents

19:59 ➤ The P vs NP problem explained

21:54 ➤ Sustainability: smarter algorithms over raw energy

24:57 ➤ Neuromorphic computing & why Daniel’s betting on China

26:58 ➤ “John read a letter to Mary”: transformer context

30:30 ➤ GenAI use cases: content, perception & AI agents

33:53 ➤ The internet is poisoning AI — and AI is poisoning the internet

36:46 ➤ What Socrates would think of AI today

39:26 ➤ Ethos, Pathos, Logos — the Greek lens on truth

41:23 ➤ Philosophy, resilience & the ancient Lyceum

43:00 ➤ Protopia and the future of intelligence

MEMORABLE QUOTES

“Generative AI is still a bit like an intoxicated graduate.”

“We’ve been chasing power when we should be chasing purpose.”

KEY IDEAS DISCUSSED

➤ Why adaptation, not computation, defines real intelligence

➤ How neuromorphic computing could make AI far more efficient

➤ Why China is leading the next phase of innovation

➤ The ethics of “mind crime” and whether conscious AI deserves rights

➤ Why sustainability in AI is about smarter algorithms, not more energy

➤ How AI agents on phones could act as value-aligned personal shoppers

➤ Why humans may one day become immortal as consciousness merges with tech

➤ What the ancient Greeks would think of AI — and why The Lyceum still matters

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Hosted by Samraj Matharu — Certified AI Ethicist (Oxford) | Visiting Lecturer (Durham)

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