The movies we’ve grown up watching have made quite the impression on our lives and how we think about AI. 

From the exciting prospect of flying cars in Back to the Future, to the grim post-apocalyptic landscape of Mad Max. What’s closer to the truth in our near future? For instance, we’ve recently seen ABBA launch a ‘hologram’ tour and Mark Zuckerberg enter the metaverse. 

What else can we expect from the coming decade and how might these technologies evolve to become seamless in our lives? 

TOPICS WE DISCUSS INCLUDE
●	How movies like ‘The Matrix’ and Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ were incredibly prescient when considering our future interactions with machines.
●	How TV shows like ‘Black Mirror’ identify potential negative and positive aspects of AI, sounding a warning before the technology is actually made.
●	How the Adapt Centre is involved in Digitally Enhanced Engagement that’s bringing about a revolution in AI.
●	The work at the Adapt Centre aimed at improving user experiences by focusing on human centric AI.
●	How personalising proactive agents to model users appropriately could allow them to represent us in real life.
●	The need for designers to be discerning consumers of the data they gather to create AI.
 
GUEST DETAILS
Owen Conlan is a full Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. He is an internationally recognised researcher and thought leader in the field of Personalised Visualisation. 

Prof Conlan has authored 180+ peer-reviewed and high impact publications and has a h-index of 27. His most significant research contributions are the multi-model, metadata driven approach to personalisation, the non-invasive approach to personalisation, and the automated construction of personalised visualisations (which underpins several industry collaborations).

Ben Cowan is Associate Professor at UCD’s School of Information and Communication Studies; and Funded Investigator within the Adapt Centre. He specialises in voice UX and Conversational User Interfaces. He has published over 70 academic research papers on topics related to voice user interfaces, communication and cognitive psychology. 

His research lies at the juncture between psychology, human-computer interaction and communication systems in investigating how design impacts aspects of user behaviour in social, collaborative and communicative technology interactions.

https://www.adaptcentre.ie/experts/owen-conlan/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-conlan-49a82b13/

https://www.adaptcentre.ie/experts/benjamin-cowan/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-cowan-ba098515/

AdaptCentre.ie

Owen Conlan and Ben Cowan: AI and SciFi

How many times have you gone to the doctor and then on the way home from the appointment, realized there were things that you forgot to ask about?

Today, we hear about an AI-powered platform that helps patients record questions and quality-of-life issues ahead of time to support more effective consultations. Currently being trialled with cancer patients, we hear how the system integrates with electronic health records, improves patient engagement, and has the potential to cut clinician workload in half. 

Our guest is a seasoned expert in digitising patient care with over 25 years of experience in clinical and research settings. We’re delighted to welcome CEO of eAltra, Denis Roche.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

●	The role of AI in enhancing patient communication
●	Human-centreed design and clinical insight in ai development
●	Technical integration with electronic health records (EHR)
●	Real-world testing and impact on clinical workflows
●	Incorporating wearable and environmental data

GUEST DETAILS

Denis Roche is the CEO and founder of eAltra, a Trinity College Dublin spinout developing conversational AI to support cancer care. With over 25 years of experience in digitising patient pathways, Denis brings deep expertise in cognitive computing and data analytics. His clinical insights, gained from working in leading healthcare settings, have driven eAltra’s mission to address global under-capacity in cancer care. Under his leadership, the company has secured Enterprise Ireland funding and won Best Emerging AI at Spark Crowdfunding’s Top 100 Awards.
https://www.eAltra.com/ 

MORE INFORMATION

You can learn more about your AI Literacy in the Classroom here: https://ai-literacy-in-the-classroom.adaptcentre.ie/
 
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie


QUOTES

It's really just to combine the information source with the accessibility, making it more powerful. - Denis Roche 

What we're trying to do at eAltra is to equip the patient as best as we can. Give them the information that they need, in the way that they want it, at the time that they need it. - Denis Roche 

We're trying to create somewhere that patients can come and know that it's safe and it's private. - Denis Roche 

The hospital teams think it's going to bring the time they spend down by about 50%. - Denis Roche

It feeds into streamlining or improving the patient scheduling process. - Denis Roche

KEYWORDS
#AI #technology #cancer #healthcare #EHR #clinicaltrials #patient #data #digitalhealth

Empowering Cancer Patients with AI

When your AI agent books a rental car, it needs your driver's license, credit card, calendar access and permission to message your contacts—creating what Meredith Whittaker calls "fundamental backdoor" threatening apps like Signal. 

At ADAPT ADVANCE 2025, Signal Foundation President and AI Now Institute co-founder Meredith Whittaker joined Dr Abeba Birhane for a fireside chat dissecting why "bigger is better" serves hyperscaler monopolies not evidence. 

How AI companions weaponise 1970s Eliza manipulation psychology on minors, why "open source AI" became marketing arbitrage exploiting software community goodwill, and what sovereign AI actually requires beyond anxiety signifiers—including democratic governance, trusted local data, and answers to "who owns deployment infrastructure?"
 
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

* “Bigger is better" AI myth protects hyperscaler monopolies, not users
* Agentic AI demands sweeping permissions creating existential privacy backdoor threats
* AI companions weaponize known psychological manipulation tactics against vulnerable minors
* "Open source AI" exploits software community goodwill without delivering benefits
* Sovereign AI requires democratic governance beyond geopolitical anxiety signaling today

GUEST DETAILS

Meredith Whittaker is President of the Signal Foundation and co-founder of the AI Now Institute—one of the most trusted voices in AI ethics, transparency and accountability. Her decade of work has profoundly shaped ethical AI frameworks, bringing impact from academia to industry.

At Google, Meredith was core organizer for the 2018 Google Walkouts where over 20,000 employees protested military AI use (Project Maven), surveillance, and sexual misconduct—forcing Google to discontinue their military contract and oust implicated VPs.

As AI Now Institute co-founder, her research cuts through AI hype, grounding discussions on what truly matters: power concentration, labour exploitation in AI pipelines, and protecting fundamental rights including privacy and rule of law. 

Her work exposes corporate capture, debunks "bigger is better" myths, reveals sustainability costs, and provides foundational open source research.

Meredith has provided congressional testimony to US Congress and leads Signal—one of the most trusted privacy-friendly messaging apps. Her background building large-scale network measurement systems at Google gives her unique expertise in data quality, evaluation criteria manipulation, and how benchmark gaming serves hyperscaler interests over real-world effectiveness.

Dr Abeba Birhane is founder and director of the AI Accountability Lab at Trinity College Dublin. Her groundbreaking research examines AI datasets, uncovering how larger datasets contain higher hateful content and pornography—debunking "bigger dissipates problems" assumptions. 

Her work on benchmarks and measurement demonstrates that purpose-built smaller models often outperform larger models in real-world contexts with appropriate contextual data.

Connect with the guests:

* Signal Foundation: signal.org
* AI Now Institute: ainowinstitute.org
* AI Accountability Lab: Contact through ADAPT Centre
* Follow their research and writing on AI accountability

MORE INFORMATION

You can learn more about the Sea-Scan project and other cutting-edge research at Trinity College Dublin's ADAPT Centre here: www.adaptcentre.ie/
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the ADAPT Centre
For more information about ADAPT's groundbreaking AI and data analytics research visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

KEYWORDS

#TrustedAI #AIaccountability #AIprivacy #AIgovernance #MeredithWhittaker

Who owns AI with Meredith Whittaker from Signal

This week Kevin Koidl from digital content research centre Adapt talks about a new model of trustworthy social networks. In other news, Eir is back with big broadband promises, but can it deliver?

Adapt's Kevin Koidl on rethinking social networks

Abigail's research aims to improve automatic processing of Irish multiword expressions (MWEs).

Abigail Walsh: Developing Irish Language Technology

ADAPT, the world-leading SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, brings leading academics, researchers and industry partners together to deliver excellent science, engage the public, develop novel solutions for business across all sectors and enhance Ireland’s international reputation.

Who owns AI with Meredith Whittaker from Signal

ADAPT Radio

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