AI Literacy – Heritage School of Herbal Medicine Special
About the Masterclass
It is completely understandable to approach Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a mix of awe, scepticism, and perhaps a little fear. As herbalists, we naturally favour spending time with nature and traditional therapeutics over screens and algorithms.
However, the era of saying, “I just stay clear of AI” is over.
Whether we realise it or not, AI is now fundamentally woven into the internet, search engines, and practice management tools. Refusing to understand it is like refusing to learn the rules of the road simply because you prefer a horse and cart. To protect your future practice, your patients, and your professional integrity, you need a “driver’s license” for the digital age.
In this focused, 60-minute online session designed specifically for students of the Heritage School of Herbal Medicine, Luke Ó hErodáin will cut through the tech-jargon to deliver a highly practical, clinical guide to navigating AI. You will learn how to harness AI as an administrative “spotter” while avoiding the dangerous pitfalls of over-reliance.
What You Will Learn
- The Anatomy of AI: Demystifying Large Language Models (LLMs). Discover why AI is a “mirror, not a mind,” and why treating it like a clinical authority is a dangerous mistake.
- The Clinical Minefield: Learn to spot the three major AI pathologies: Hallucinations (the confident liar), Sycophancy (the yes-man), and Regurgitation (the disturbing rise of fake, AI-generated herbal books).
- Managing “Dr. AI” in the Clinic: How to ethically and professionally de-escalate patients who bring in highly convincing, yet potentially toxic, AI-generated botanical protocols.
- The Traffic Light System: A practical guide to what is safe (Green Light: brainstorming, researching via peer-reviewed AI tools like Consensus) and what to strictly avoid (Red Light: diagnostics, formulations, and raw patient data).
Who Should Attend?
This session is essential for community herbal medicine students. Whether you consider yourself a “technophobe” worried about data privacy, or a tech-enthusiast looking to streamline your future clinic, this masterclass will provide you with the balanced, nuanced framework you need.
This session is not specifically geared towards practicing herbalists as it does not cover the GDPR / AI Literacy requirements for clinics.
About the Speaker
Luke Ó hErodáin (Luke Heron) Dip Herb Med is a medical herbalist based in Ireland and operating his clinic in Cork. He is the current lead of the Herbal Alliance and is actively engaging with professional herbalists in the UK and Ireland to navigate through this digital age.
Before becoming a herbalist, Luke spent a decade in the media and technology industry working in film production, digital marketing and tech deployment, a background that informs his critical perspective on AI and digital ethics. He is an independent researcher focusing on the French Eclectic Doctors who coined the term ‘phytotherapy’ and the implications of AI in herbal practice. He is a foraging instructor dedicated to bridging traditional local plant wisdom with modern scientific insights.