Why AI Ethics Is Really About Who Controls Knowledge - Peter Hardi
A Beginner's Guide to AI · Aug 27, 2026 · 49:08
A Beginner's Guide to AI · Aug 27, 2026 · 49:08
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AI ethics is increasingly about more than bias, safety and regulation. It may also be about who controls the knowledge that AI systems use to shape our understanding of the world.
In this episode of Beginner's Guide to AI, Dietmar Fischer talks with Peter Hardi, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the Central European University and a long-time specialist in business ethics, academic integrity and responsible management.
Hardi became seriously interested in AI after seeing how universities were initially responding to ChatGPT. Instead of focusing primarily on detecting students who used AI, he argued that the more important question was how students and professors could use AI in ways that genuinely benefited learning and teaching.
From there, his interest became much broader.
To understand AI properly, Hardi went back to its foundations: mathematics, algorithms, probability, statistics, optimisation and the way these elements come together in modern AI systems. He also became fascinated by the language used to describe AI, arguing that terms such as "learning", "reasoning", "understanding" and "remembering" can make people assume that AI systems possess human-like qualities they do not actually have.
The most important part of the conversation, however, is what happens when AI becomes an intermediary between people and knowledge.
AI systems can distribute information at enormous scale. Hardi asks what happens when those systems begin influencing not only what people know, but also what they consider important enough to learn, preserve and pass on to future generations.
That leads to one of the episode's central questions:
Who decides what goes into the foundational knowledge behind AI?
The discussion covers AI ethics, academic integrity, AI literacy, hallucinations, AI bias, foundation models, AI governance, open models, the EU AI Act, AI in higher education and the impact of AI on fine arts and culture.
It also includes Hardi's very personal perspective on using AI at more than 80 years old.
This episode is relevant for business professionals, founders, consultants, marketers, executives, educators, academics and AI decision makers who want to think beyond AI productivity and ask deeper questions about governance, responsibility and knowledge.
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Dietmar Fischer is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin.
If you want help with AI strategy or digital marketing, visit:
“My concern is really different. What worries me is the concentration of largely uncontested power over decisions about what goes into the foundational training materials.”
“These systems can really produce remarkably human-like outputs, but that doesn't mean that they think or understand in the way humans do.”
“Curiosity does not have an expiration date.”
00:00 Opening: AI over 80
04:00 Why universities should teach responsible AI use
14:09 Going back to the foundations of AI
25:27 How AI could reshape cultural knowledge
29:44 Who controls the knowledge behind AI?
38:48 AI, creativity and the fine arts
43:20 Terminator, the Matrix and the future of humanity
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Episodes: A Beginner's Guide to AI
