What happens when the most powerful government in the world tells an AI company to remove its ethics — and the company says no?

In our Season 2 opener, Stephen and Lauren dig into Claude's Constitution: a 23,000-word document — three times longer than the US Constitution — that Anthropic built directly into its AI model to govern how it thinks, behaves, and refuses. They explore the philosophy behind it, the fascinating Scottish philosopher from Dundee who helped write it (and may end up with more influence on the world than David Hume or Adam Smith), and how Isaac Asimov saw most of this coming back in 1942.

Then they get to the part that isn't getting nearly enough press: the Pentagon has approached Anthropic demanding blanket permission to use Claude for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens. Anthropic said no. Now the US Department of War is threatening to blacklist them — a move that could be an existential threat to the company.

OpenAI and Google have already agreed to strip their military safeguards. Anthropic is the last holdout. And the outcome of this standoff may echo for decades.

This one's a lot. But it matters.

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Interview with Amanda Askell on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDfr8PvfoOw

In this episode of The AI Transition, we step away from the weekly headlines and look ahead to 2026. What are the most likely AI shocks coming next, and how prepared are we for their human impact?

We avoid the speculative hype or techno-optimism but focus instead on how AI may reshape work, identity, power, and economic stability faster than people and organisations can adapt.

We count down of our five biggest AI predictions, from #5 to #1 — exploring each one through a transition lens, focusing not on the technology itself, but on what it does to people.

· #5 – Humanoid Robots Go Mainstream

· #4 – Proto-AGI Becomes “Good Enough”

· #3 – The First Large-Scale AI-Attributable Disaster

· #2 – Digital Immigrants Arrive

· #1 – The AI Stock Market Bubble Pops

Throughout the episode, we explore why these shifts feel so destabilising, why resistance is growing, and why the real challenge ahead isn’t technological — it’s human.

If you’re a leader, coach, or professional trying to make sense of what AI means beyond the hype, this episode is for you.

As 2025 comes to a close, Stephen and Lauren take a look back at a "crazy" year of rapid transitions and massive technological shifts. In this episode of the AI Transition Podcast, they count down the top five events that defined the human side of the AI revolution—from the surprisingly high preference for AI mental health support to the "open source shockwave" that rebalanced global power.

In this episode, we discuss:

• #5 The Mental Health Frontier: Why 46% of people reaching out to helplines are finding comfort in AI first.
• #4 The Creative Explosion: How "Nano Banana" and new image generators put professional-grade tools in the hands of everyone from school kids to retirees.
• #3 The Workplace Standard: Why Copilot is becoming as common as a search bar, and the critical "word of caution" regarding workplace surveillance.
• #2 The Model Wars: How Google Gemini caught up to OpenAI, shifting us into a "multi-prong" competitive landscape.
• #1 The Global Shift: Why the rise of DeepSeek and open-source models means AI is no longer a USA-only game.

Join us as we navigate the triumphs, the tragedies, and the "messy middle" of our transition into an AI-driven world.