Exploring the AI Mirror: Dr. Shannon Vallor Delivers Closing Lecture in Iona’s Presidential Speaker Series
Speaking to a capacity audience, Vallor argued that to truly create new ideas and solutions, we must continue to look inward rather than outsource our most important questions to artificial intelligence
New Rochelle, N.Y. – As artificial intelligence continues to transform how we live and work, Dr. Shannon Vallor, the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, recently delivered the culminating Driscoll Lecture of the inaugural Presidential Speaker Series.
Sponsored by the Gabelli Center for Teaching & Learning, the Presidential Speaker Series was conceived by President Seamus Carey, Ph.D., to foster communitywide conversation around the topic of AI in education.
Vallor, author of “The A.I. Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking” and “Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting,” addressed the ethical challenges posed by generative AI tools and called for thoughtful, human-centered innovation.
“I want to focus on how these AI mirrors – which can be used as tools to enlarge our possibilities, enhance our freedom and secure our futures – are instead increasingly being used to steal these from us,” said the tech ethicist.
During her lecture, Vallor emphasized that AI technologies, especially tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, should be understood as mirrors, reflecting human data back to us, rather than minds capable of independent thought.
While challenging current trends in AI, Vallor offered a hopeful alternative: tools designed not to replace human thinking, but to strengthen it.
“Think about the gym equipment that's designed not to lift for you, not to run for you, but to increase your capacity to lift, to run, to push, to pull,” she said. “Imagine AI built with the mentality of someone who’s building gym equipment.”
Vallor called for a reimagining of the tech industry’s values, urging investment not in faster, flashier tools, but in systems that foster human flourishing, civic trust and ethical imagination.
She also reminded the audience that this effort begins in spaces like Iona University.
Reflecting on the evening via social media, Vallor wrote, “I’m on a month-long US talk tour and gave my first one last night at Iona University in NY. The conversation with the audience afterward was one of the most open and searching and beautiful I’ve had – we talked about the need to recenter history in education, how to bring students into learning, how students can learn to listen to, trust and advocate for their own experience of learning, especially if they learn in uncommon ways, how to keep AI from damaging the bond between educators and students, how to revalue service and care, how to hold on to pragmatic optimism and agency for the future. The conversation went over time by 40 min and felt like it could have gone on for hours. Sometimes it floors me how lucky I am to be able to do this for a living.”
Learn more about the Presidential Speaker Series here.
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona also continues to be recognized in prestigious national rankings. Most recently for 2025, Iona has been named one of the nation’s best colleges by The Princeton Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and others. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report recognized Iona as one of top for social mobility in the country, while Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) ranked an Iona degree in the top 5 percent nationally for long-term return on investment. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business, meanwhile, is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just 6 percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2024.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with one of the nation’s top hospitals. Connecting to its Irish heritage, Iona also opened a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland, located on the historic 400-acre Westport House Estate. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.