Most conversations about AI are stuck in a tired binary. It's either the technology that's going to replace us all, or a clever bit of automation that doesn't really matter. Both framings miss the point, and both let the people building these systems off the hook.

In this episode of AI for Equity, Leah and Jenny sit down with Maria Axente, one of the UK's leading voices on responsible AI and instrumental in establishing PwC's centre of excellence in the field. Maria's route in didn't start with computer science. It started with a curiosity about the systems people build, and how those systems shape the rest of us. That perspective runs through everything she does.

We get into:

• Why the dominant framings of AI, threat or toy, are both wrong
• What responsible AI actually means in practice, and where most organisations are still getting it wrong
• The socio-technical lens, and why treating AI as purely technical leads to bad decisions
• Why education is the conversation nobody wants to have, and what shifts when you put the right tools in front of the next generation
• How to build AI that augments human judgment instead of replacing it

A conversation about power, design, and the uncomfortable middle where the real work of responsible AI happens.