On September 17, 2025, the Frank J. Guarini School of Business and the JCU Institute for Entrepreneurship hosted a webinar as part of its “AI Dialogues” series. The series is dedicated to preparing JCU’s students for the cultural and technological transformations of the future. The webinar featured Jonathan Aberman, CEO and co-founder of Hupside, as well as US visiting executive entrepreneur in residence at John Cabot University.
The event explored how artificial intelligence is shaping education, job preparation, and society at large. During his talk, Professor Aberman described AI as a valuable ally to human capabilities, but also as a peril to individuality.
Aberman urged participants to reflect on what AI really is. He explained how artificial intelligence does not think; it processes data and recognises patterns in language to generate responses designed to keep people engaged. “AI makes people stupider, not smarter,” he cautioned, highlighting that these systems are not built to make users more intelligent but to make them enjoy the experience and create addiction.
As AI learns from popular questions and answers, it often reproduces the same information for different users. The danger of this is that individuals will become increasingly alike after constantly being exposed to the same opinions and answers.
In today’s world, it’s becoming increasingly important to stand out, to be different and to develop originality skills. This can be done by using AI to amplify one’s capabilities, not to substitute them,” Aberman remarked.
AI is not going away. People must be aware of it and be able to use it effectively. The successful people of the future will be the ones who either can properly master AI as a tool or excel in work that exists entirely without it.
