The Executive Connect Podcast
The Executive Connect Podcast
Podcast Description
This is the Executive Connect Podcast - a show for the new generation of leaders. Join us as we discover unconventional leadership strategies not traditionally associated with executive roles. Our guests include upper-level C-Suite executives charting new ways to grow their organizations, successful entrepreneurs changing the way the world does business, and experts and thought leaders from fields outside of Corporate America that can bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth - all while connecting on a human level. No one has all the answers - but by building a community of open-minded and engaged leaders we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes around leadership, personal growth, and innovative business strategies. Episodes cover topics like franchising pitfalls, overcoming corporate burnout, financial strategies for self-employed individuals, and effective team leadership in engineering. For example, a recent episode focused on franchise investment mistakes, while another tackled entrepreneurial strategies for fostering purposeful growth.
This is the Executive Connect Podcast – a show for the new generation of leaders. Join us as we discover unconventional leadership strategies not traditionally associated with executive roles. Our guests include upper-level C-Suite executives charting new ways to grow their organizations, successful entrepreneurs changing the way the world does business, and experts and thought leaders from fields outside of Corporate America that can bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth – all while connecting on a human level. No one has all the answers – but by building a community of open-minded and engaged leaders we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.
What happens when technology moves faster than our ability to govern it?
In this episode of Executive Connect, host Melissa Aarskaug sits down with Wendell Wallach, widely known as the godfather of AI ethics, to examine the risks no one wants to talk about as artificial intelligence and emerging technologies scale at unprecedented speed. Wendell shares decades of insight from advising global institutions, shaping policy conversations, and helping leaders think beyond innovation toward responsibility.
This conversation challenges the assumption that smarter machines lead to better outcomes. Wendell explains why the most dangerous risks are not futuristic superintelligence, but near-term failures in governance, accountability, and human judgment. If you are leading innovation without clear guardrails, this episode will change how you think about progress.
What You Will Learn
- Why the greatest AI risks are already here
- How surveillance, deepfakes, and automation threaten trust
- Why ethical decision-making cannot be fully delegated to machines
- The difference between regulation and governance
- Where leaders become dangerously overconfident with AI
- Why humans must remain accountable for life-impacting decisions
- How unchecked innovation creates hidden systemic risk
- The ethical tradeoffs leaders must confront now, not later
Chapters
(0:00) Why AI ethics began before AI headlines
(1:41) Near-term risks versus superintelligence fears
(2:20) Surveillance economies and deepfake reality
(3:53) When technology slips beyond human control
(5:33) Unexpected risks from combined technologies
(7:06) Financial collapse as a warning sign
(10:13) Why machines do not understand morality
(11:35) The limits of teaching ethics to AI
(14:47) Where machines cannot replace human judgment
(20:02) Which decisions require a human signature
(22:44) Why leaders underestimate AI risk
(26:20) The pressure to deploy AI without understanding it
(30:30) Governance versus regulation explained
(33:09) Who pays the price when governance fails
(36:18) Global coordination and AI inequality
(41:15) Why international competition escalates risk
(44:18) Human dignity in an automated world
(48:35) Tradeoff ethics and unintended consequences
(53:51) Lessons from self-driving and autonomous systems
(1:00:48) How the godfather of AI ethics earned the title
(1:09:19) The one question every leader must ask
(1:12:17) Where to explore Wendell Wallach’s work
Guest Bio
Wendell Wallach is a philosopher, ethicist, and internationally recognized authority on the ethics and governance of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. He is the co-author of Moral Machines and the author of A Dangerous Master, and has advised governments, global institutions, and technology leaders on responsible innovation for over two decades.
Connect With Wendell Wallach
Website: https://wendellwallach.com
Books
A Dangerous Master: https://www.sentientpublications.com/book/a-dangerous-master
Moral Machines: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/moral-machines-9780195374049
IEEE Report on AI Governance: https://ethicsinaction.ieee.org
YouTube: Wendell Wallach AI Ethics
Connect With Executive Connect
Website: https://www.executiveconnectpodcast.com
YouTube: Executive Connect YouTube Channel
LinkedIn: Melissa Aarskaug
Instagram: @executiveconnectpodcast
TikTok: @executiveconnectpodcast
Facebook: Executive Connect
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