What happens when humans and AI start to grow together?

In this episode of AfterShock, Caroline Stokes speaks with Helen Edwards — co-founder of the Artificiality Institute and one of the world’s most insightful voices on human–AI cognition. Together they explore how AI is reshaping the way we think, feel, make decisions, and lead in a world that is being reconfigured by AI at unprecedented speed.

Helen unpacks:

 why awe and wonder are essential antidotes to fear

 how symbiogenesis explains humans and AI “growing together”

 the eight roles we give AI — and how each one reshapes identity

 the five phases of human–AI adaptation

 why efficiency can destroy meaning, and why uncertainty matters

 what cognitive sovereignty really is — and why it’s now a leadership skill.

At the end of the conversation, Helen offers a powerful insight about how to stay sovereign, curious, and emotionally grounded as AI accelerates — a cue that every AI user needs to hear.

More about Helen Edwards

Helen Edwards is co-founder of the Artificiality Institute, a nonprofit research organization studying how AI is changing what it means to be human. She has worked in AI for more than a decade, leading research on how technology transforms identity, work, and culture. Before this, Helen held senior roles

as CIO for New Zealand’s National Grid and as an executive at PG&E. She is also a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Human-Compatible AI, where the focus is human over-reliance on AI.

Artificiality Institute: https://artificialityinstitute.org/

The cognitive sovereignty cube: https://artificialityinstitute.org/cognitive-sovereignty-and-the-cube/