June 2026 broke every temperature record in European history. Railway tracks melted in Germany. Schools closed across the UK. It is the kind of moment that makes abstract warnings feel suddenly real. And it is the backdrop against which Graeme Codrington and Dean van Leeuwen are asking a question that every leader should be sitting with. What are we actually designing AI to do?
This is the latest episode of the Elephants in the Boardroom podcast.
The Pope and a 130-year-old blueprint.
The Pope just told the world that AI must serve human dignity, or it becomes a danger to humanity. That is not a theological statement. It is a leadership one. And it has a 130-year-old predecessor.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum, a direct response to the Industrial Revolution. He asked the same questions then that we are asking now. Who does the progress serve? What happens to human dignity when a new technology reshapes the social contract faster than institutions can respond?
Then as now, the technology was moving faster than the guardrails. Then as now, the people asking the hard questions were being drowned out by the noise of progress.
That question, who does the progress serve, is exactly what Dean van Leeuwen found himself asking on a street corner in Nashville.
The Waymo moment.
Dean rode in a Waymo driverless taxi, astonishingly capable right up until a road foreman stepped in front of it and started waving his arms. The car stopped. And stayed stopped. It could not read the signals or make the judgment call to take a quick detour around the roadworks. For a human driver, thirty seconds. For the Waymo, ten minutes and a remote specialist dialling in to get it moving again.
The machine was not replaced. But a human had to step back into the lead. That is the distinction that matters. Humans in the lead means remaining genuinely responsible for the choices, the consequences, and the impact. Not just watching what the machine does.
From artificial intelligence to advancing intelligence.
What if we stopped calling it artificial intelligence and started thinking of it as advancing intelligence? The language shapes the decisions. AI will advance whatever we design it to advance. If we design it around cost reduction and automation, that is what we get. If we design it around judgment, creativity, and human dignity, we have a real chance to do something much bigger.
Do not wait for the guardrails.
It took until the 1980s to mandate seatbelts, decades after manufacturers knew people were dying. AI is in that same space right now. The side effects are already visible. Leaders who act on common sense now will not be waiting for governments to tell them what to do.
What leaders can take from this conversation:
- Reframe how you talk about AI inside your organisation. The language shapes the strategy.
- Ask whether your AI investments are making your people more capable or more replaceable.
- Do not wait for regulation. Act on what you can already see.
- Build trust. It is the hardest T in Graeme’s 5T model and the fastest to lose.
If you want to move beyond the conversation and start building real AI value inside your organisation, Graeme runs 90-minute 5T AI Impact Masterclasses for senior leadership teams. The 5T model gives leaders a simple, practical framework to see where their AI energy is going and where it should be. Most organisations are stuck at Level 1. The real business value sits at Levels 3 and 4.
Further resources and the Grey Elephants framework sit inside the full episode show notes.
Catch the full episode wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you want to move beyond the conversation and start building real AI value inside your organisation, Graeme runs 90-minute 5T AI Impact Masterclasses for senior leadership teams.
The 5T model gives leaders a simple, practical framework to see where their AI energy is going and where it should be. Most organisations are stuck at Level 1. The real business value sits at Levels 3 and 4.
Further resources and the Grey Elephants framework sit inside the full episode show notes.
Contact us if you would like more information on how we can help get these conversations started in your organisation.
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