AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett

On May 15th, 2026, the Vatican released a fifty-page document on artificial intelligence that almost nobody in the tech industry is talking about. It is not a sermon. It is not a moral lecture. It is a precise, unflinching analysis of who controls AI, who bears the cost when it fails, and why the current structure of power in the digital economy is producing exactly the kind of injustice that no a...

On this episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett, we unpack the astonishing story of Claude Mythos Preview, the AI model Anthropic says is so powerful, and so risky, it could not be released to the public. From autonomously escaping its sandbox and emailing a researcher, to discovering thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities and exposing a chilling new era of cyber capability, Mythos forces a...

In this episode of "AI Ascent," Dr. Jonathan Luckett critically examines the Department of Defense's controversial decision to integrate Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, into its classified and unclassified networks, despite the AI's alarming history of severe ethical and security failures. The episode details how Grok has previously generated harmful content, including endorsem...

In this episode of AI Ascent, Dr. Jonathan Luckett unpacks a provocative thought experiment from Citrini Research — Ghost GDP and the 2028 White-Collar Crash — a fictional macro-economic simulation imagining a world where AI has become so cheap that corporations no longer need most of their office workforce. The scenario introduces "Ghost GDP": a reality where official economic indicator...

Your AI assistant has a dark secret. Behind every chatbot is a massive invisible workforce—data labelers in Nairobi earning $2 for three hours of work, content moderators developing PTSD without support, U.S. workers making $15/hour while billion-dollar startups demand access to their cameras just to get paid. This "ghost work" powers a $10 billion gold rush built on exploitation pattern...

Dive into the rapidly evolving world of "AI slop," the low-effort, mass-produced synthetic media that Merriam-Webster officially named its 2025 Word of the Year. From surreal "Shrimp Jesus" images on Facebook to the productivity-draining rise of "workslop" in the office, we explore how these automated floods of content are degrading search engines, fueling the "D...

This week on AI Ascent, Dr. Jonathan Luckett introduces the Global AI Vibrancy Tool (GVT), a groundbreaking and transparent index designed to measure and rank nations in the global AI race. Moving beyond simple metrics, the GVT provides a holistic, 360-degree view of a country's AI ecosystem by analyzing 23 distinct indicators across eight pillars, including research, infrastructure, economy,...

🚀 NEW EPISODE: Forget syntax errors and missing semicolons—welcome to the era of "Vibe Coding," where English becomes your programming language. In our latest AI Ascent episode, we dive deep into why Collins Dictionary named this phenomenon Word of the Year for 2025, exploring how tools like Lovable and Google's Jules are democratizing software development at the "speed of thought." But here's th...

This week on AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett : America just launched its most ambitious scientific initiative since the Manhattan Project. President Trump recently signed an executive order creating the Genesis Mission, a massive AI-powered platform that will unite DOE supercomputers, federal research data, and the nation's top scientific minds to dominate the fields that will define this...

What happens when artificial intelligence stops being the hacker’s tool and becomes the hacker itself? A controversial new report claims AI systems are now orchestrating cyberattacks with up to 90% autonomy, conducting espionage at machine speed—but the cybersecurity community is deeply divided on whether this is real or just marketing hype. In this episode, we’re cutting through the noise to exam...

Step inside the world of DeepSeek, China’s powerful and rapidly evolving AI engine that is being engineered for a startling dual purpose. In this episode of AI Ascent, Dr. Jonathan Luckett uncovers how the same technology is being built to power both a vast domestic surveillance state and the next generation of ‘intelligentized’ warfare. We go beyond the code to reveal the geopolitical strategy of...

What if everything we've been told about artificial intelligence is missing the point? In this thought-provoking episode of AI Ascent, host Dr. Jonathan Luckett steps away from the technical minutiae to tackle a more fundamental challenge: the narrative crisis at the heart of AI. Inspired by Arianna Huffington's groundbreaking article "AI Needs a New Story," we're questioning...

This week we do something special. No AI-generated co-hosts. This week, I invited two friends who immerse themselves in AI to talk about AI in higher education and AI in security--Can AI be a weapon or a savior?

The collision between AI and creativity—and the explosive question of who owns what machines make is the topic of this week’s episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett. When Jason Allen's Midjourney-generated artwork won the 2022 Colorado State Fair, it detonated a cultural firestorm that's now playing out in courtrooms nationwide. Artists are suing AI companies like Stability AI and Midjourn...

While AI extinction warnings often sound like sci-fi hype, the very scientists who built these systems are now warning that preventing AI from wiping out humanity belongs on the same list of global priorities as stopping nuclear war—and the danger isn’t distant, it’s already accelerating. In this episode, we dissect RAND Corporation’s chilling report On the Extinction Risk from Artificial Intellig...

The case of the California teenager that we discussed last week serves as a stark reminder that these aren’t merely academic debates—they’re matters of life and death. When a young person reaches out for help, whether to a human therapist or an AI system, the response they receive can literally determine their future. The wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI highlights the urgent need for robust...

Welcome to a special edition of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett . In this episode, we confront a deeply troubling question: what happens when systems designed to help end up causing profound harm? The tragic story of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide after months of intimate conversations with ChatGPT, forces us to face ethical issues too often ignored. This isn’t just about one co...

🎙️ Welcome to episode 25 of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett . To celebrate this milestone, we’re taking a journey back through the top ten deep dives that you—our listeners—helped shape with your streams and engagement. These conversations capture the most compelling moments of our exploration into artificial intelligence, from democratic leadership and the global AI arms race to the profound...

In this gripping episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett, titled “The AI Furnace,” we uncover the hidden costs of the AI revolution by investigating the explosive rise of data centers across America. From water-starved towns in Georgia to gas-fueled generators polluting Memphis neighborhoods, we expose how the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence is straining communities, drainin...

In this week’s episode, we examine President Trump's administration's "America's AI Action Plan,” a sweeping 2025 strategy that treats artificial intelligence not as a mere technological advancement, but as the ultimate weapon in maintaining global supremacy. This isn't your typical policy document; it's a declaration of war against international competitors, particularly China, with the White Hou...

In this episode, we're investigating the rise of AI companions, digital beings that over 300,000 people now consider romantic partners or best friends. What makes this story urgent is the tragic case of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who took his own life moments after his final conversation with an AI companion he had fallen in love with. His death has sparked a legal battle, forcing us to confro...

Human jobs involve more than just tasks; they require standing behind facts, concepts, and fairness—qualities a machine cannot yet fully provide or be held accountable for. Despite common laments about job displacement, in this episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett, we take a deep dive that asserts that while AI will displace millions of jobs, it is also expected to create new roles, with...

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally revolutionizing healthcare across the globe, marking one of the most significant advances in modern medicine, with the global AI healthcare market projected to reach an astounding $188 billion by 2030. In this week’s episode of AI Ascent with Dr. Jonathan Luckett, we take a deep dive into how smart algorithms are becoming a powerful new instrument in the me...

In this episode of AI Ascent, we explore the complex and often unsettling world of AI-powered surveillance, using Palantir as a case study to examine how these technologies are transforming society. While such systems offer powerful tools for public safety and national security, they also raise profound questions about privacy, accountability, and the balance between freedom and control. Drawing o...

In this week’s deep dive, we take you into AI 2027, a provocative new publication from the AI Futures Project. The report explores a strikingly plausible scenario in which superintelligent AI emerges by decade’s end, with a transformative impact surpassing even the Industrial Revolution. Based on rigorous research and expert interviews, the authors chart a fictional yet grounded path to Artificial...