The Future Student Podcast

All through high school, you’ve probably been told the same thing about AI: don’t touch it.

So what if I were to tell you there’s a uni where, the moment you get your student ID, you’re handed the keys to a Ferrari?

In this episode, Rob Malicki heads to Armidale, on Anaiwan land, to sit down with Aaron Driver, UNE’s Chief AI Officer, which might just be the coolest job title in Australia. UNE is the first university in the country to give every student a fully featured AI platform, not just a chat window, and Aaron takes us inside how it works and why it matters for you.

You’ll discover the four big reasons UNE made this bold move: job readiness, equity, privacy and safety. You’ll find out why every student completes a compulsory AI safety course before getting access, why not even the university can read your chats, and why future employers will expect graduates who can manage whole teams of AI agents, not just type questions into a chatbot.

In this episode:

• Using AI in up to half of your assessments
• UNE’s two-lane assessment model: learning tasks and assurance tasks
• Studying smarter with AI, from lecture notes to personal podcasts
• UNE’s new personalised AI learning environment
• Managing your “life load” while studying
• UNE’s history as a pioneer of distance and online education
• Why you don’t need to be a “tech person” to thrive with AI
• A rare moment from Rob you won’t want to miss

We hope you enjoy this conversation with Aaron!

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