Editor's note: This is AI Impact, Newsweek's weekly newsletter where each week, we will explore how business leaders are unlocking real value through artificial intelligence.
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Core Intelligence
Stephen Fry on What AI Still Doesn’t Understand
In a conversation with Marcus Weldon, Newsweek’s Contributing Editor for AI, Sir Stephen Fry reflected on artificial intelligence with the kind of erudition and wit that have made him one of Britain’s most recognizable cultural and intellectual figures. Fry’s mind moved easily across philosophy, literature, neuroscience and computer science, drawing connections that at times felt strikingly similar to the associative leaps of the large language models now reshaping modern technology.
That similarity is part of what makes him such an intriguing guide to the question of machine intelligence. In some ways, he observed, language models already resemble a narrow aspect of human cognition: the ability to synthesize enormous volumes of information into a coherent response. But similarity should not be mistaken for equivalence.
In Fry’s view, intelligence is not simply the generation of plausible answers. It is the ability to interpret reality across domains—reading meaning into music, literature or social life. That interpretive richness, he suggested, grows out of the embodied and emotional experiences that shape human perception. Current language models, however powerful, lack the perceptual building blocks needed to represent that richer understanding of the world.
He also drew a connection between intelligence and wisdom. As a child, Fry recalled hearing the archbishop of Canterbury define wisdom as “the ability to cope.” Machines do not cope with adversity, uncertainty or stress in the way living beings do, and that absence matters. Coping, reflection and emotional experience are part of what allow humans to reinterpret events and learn from them in ways that go beyond pattern recognition.
These distinctions became especially visible when the conversation turned to the creative arts. Fry sees clear value in AI as a creative tool—capable of helping generate characters, sketch narrative structures or explore unfamiliar directions. But he remains skeptical that machines could produce truly human art, because art ultimately arises from lived experience. As he put it, songwriting and literature grow out of “the experience you've had since you were a baby, growing up as a child into this state of adolescence that you're in now.” Language models may reproduce patterns, but lived experience is what gives art meaning.
At the same time, the technology may function as a mirror—forcing humans to examine their own nature more closely. As Fry observed, “difference yields meaning,” and that difference may prompt deeper reflection upon what makes human intelligence unique.
That reflection extends beyond art into the broader social implications of the technology. Fry warned that the power of AI could easily be exploited by what he called the “three C’s”: countries, companies and criminals. Systems capable of generating convincing language and human-like interactions could enable what philosopher Daniel Dennett described as “counterfeit people”—artificial agents able to imitate humans convincingly enough to undermine trust in digital environments.
For Fry, the moment therefore contains both extraordinary promise and genuine danger. Artificial intelligence could expand human knowledge, creativity and education in ways that once seemed unimaginable. But realizing those benefits, he said, will depend on transparency, accountability and a willingness by society to challenge the institutions shaping the technology.
The result is a tension that runs through his entire view of AI. The technology is capable of amplifying human creativity and discovery. It also carries the risk of distorting the very experiences it imitates.
In Fry’s words, the age of artificial intelligence is both “thrilling and chilling.”
You can watch the interview and read the full article here: Fry Gives Forth on AI: A Magisterial Wonder but We Must ‘Wake the F*** Up’.
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Prompt Injection
What’s one recent insight you’ve learned about AI?
“One of my biggest ‘aha’ moments this past year is that the real ROI from AI in Enterprise will be delivered when we make it customer centric and rethink solutions and not just replace traditional technology with AI. AI gives us the opportunity to move beyond internal org charts and build solutions that understand the full arc of a customer relationship, from prospect to onboarding to daily usage and long-term growth.
Today, most enterprise AI mirrors how companies are structured, with separate sales agents, support agents, and product agents. While a natural starting point, the real breakthrough comes when AI connects those touchpoints and creates a continuous, intelligent understanding of the customer. When agents have that end-to-end context, they can anticipate needs, reduce friction, and help teams deliver a far more cohesive experience. This is where the real business transformation will take place.”
Have your own lesson to share? Email us at: ai.newsletter@newsweek.com
Run Log
AI use case of the week
By Adam Mills
Before redesigning its digital dashboard, TBC Bank, one of Georgia's largest financial institutions, found that most users never scrolled past the first screen. Features designed to deepen engagement remained largely unseen, while the bank’s onboarding flow stretched to 33 steps and took an average of eight minutes to complete.
To understand where customers were getting stuck, TBC Bank implemented Fullstory’s AI-powered behavioral analytics platform. The system analyzes digital interactions to surface friction signals such as rage clicks, dead clicks and extended idle time. Those insights helped identify where users struggled to navigate the interface and where key features were being missed entirely.
Using those findings, the dashboard experience was redesigned to prioritize personalization and flexibility. Customers could rearrange widgets, hide tools they didn’t need and interact with drag-and-drop components tailored to their preferences. The goal was to surface the most relevant features immediately, rather than expecting users to search through the interface.
The changes produced measurable gains. According to Fullstory, TBC Bank saw a 145-percent increase in conversion rates, an 81-percent reduction in time-to-task and a threefold acceleration in onboarding speed. The redesigned dashboard also reduced rage and dead clicks while improving Net Promoter Score, a common measure of customer satisfaction.
The lesson was that improving digital engagement often comes down to eliminating friction rather than adding new features. “Seemingly small changes make all the difference,” said Claire Fang, chief technology officer at Fullstory. “Users want feature-rich digital tools, but they also expect simple navigation and platforms that address their unique needs. With TBC Bank, we went back to basics and prioritized personalization at every turn.”
Have an AI use case to share with us? Email us at: ai.newsletter@newsweek.com
Context Window
■ Entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Emma Grede are urging founders to adopt artificial intelligence as a daily tool, arguing that experimenting with AI across tasks, from research to planning, will increasingly determine which startups stay competitive in the modern business environment. [Newsweek]
■ Amazon is pushing AI tools across its workforce—from coding assistants to internal automation systems—though some employees say the rushed rollout has slowed work and increased monitoring inside the company. [The Guardian]
■ A Gallup survey found AI use is rising across both public- and private-sector workplaces, with roughly four in 10 employees reporting at least some use late last year, suggesting generative AI is moving further into day-to-day work routines. [Semafor]
■ Nvidia is investing $2 billion in Nebius to expand AI cloud infrastructure, as the Amsterdam-based company builds large clusters of Nvidia GPUs for training and running artificial intelligence models amid surging demand for computing power. [The Wall Street Journal]
■ Google is rolling out Gemini AI agents across unclassified Pentagon networks, giving civilian and military personnel new tools to automate routine work as the Defense Department explores wider workplace automation. [Bloomberg]
■ Meta has acquired Moltbook, a small social network designed for interactions between AI agents, bringing its founders into the company’s Superintelligence Labs as Meta expands its work on autonomous AI systems. [https://www.axios.com/2026/03/10/meta-facebook-moltbook-agent-social-network]
Transfer Protocol
Tracking executive moves across the AI landscape
Markus Kede, previously head of finance and business planning at Lundbeck, has been appointed senior vice president and chief AI officer at H. Lundbeck A/S, where he will join the executive leadership team and lead the company’s push to integrate artificial intelligence and advanced analytics across its pharmaceutical research and operations.
Valerie (Val) Henderson, an industry veteran in cloud and enterprise technology services, has been appointed chief executive officer at Caylent, where she will lead the AWS-focused consultancy’s next phase of AI-first services and help organizations redesign operations around artificial intelligence and cloud-native architectures.
Clayton Webster, PhD, an artificial intelligence researcher and engineering leader, has been appointed head of AI and engineering at Smartria, where he will lead the company’s AI strategy and development of privacy-first capabilities for financial-services compliance platforms.
Francesco Tinto, most recently chief digital officer at Advantage Solutions and previously global chief information officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance, has been appointed chief information and global business services officer at Kimberly-Clark, where he will oversee the company’s global IT and digital transformation initiatives.
John W. Larson has joined Babel Street as president and chief AI officer, where he will help lead the company’s artificial intelligence strategy and product innovation for its mission-grade risk intelligence platform serving government and enterprise customers.
Magic Moment
What’s the most fun or unexpected way you’ve used AI lately?
“The surprising moments have been when I’ve been using the live streaming video chat of ChatGPT. I showed it the model in my refrigerator and the situation I was having. I showed it the ice tray and it told me the whole thing—it knew the model, it knew the problem, it knew what common issues there were and how to resolve it.
It asked me a couple questions as well, kind of vetting what was going on, and walked me through the checkboxes. Once I validated that, it knew what the issue was. It told me exactly where to go and exactly what to say, and then stepped me through the conversation so I could get the replacement part I needed.
Their agent was basically having a conversation with my AI, which was directing it down the path of getting me the part that I needed—which worked. I have the part now.”
Experience some AI magic? Tell us about it at ai.newsletter@newsweek.com
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