Festival of Economics: Are we heading for a labour market AI-pocalypse?

A tsunami of change is sweeping the economy as robots and AI threaten to take over tasks done by humans. In her new book We Are Not Machines, Financial Times journalist Sarah O’Connor investigates what is happening on the front lines of technological change. People are not losing their jobs to machines, she found, but losing something else instead: work becoming lonelier, less creative, less human. But she also found hopeful stories of jobs being made better, safer and more enjoyable – where workers haven’t rejected the new tools but have learned to control them. O’Connor, in discussion with Heather Stewart, Guardian and Sue Turner OBE, Professor in Practice in AI and Digital Technologies at the University of Bristol, explores questions of power, design, institutions and ideas in this new world. 

Tickets are now available via Eventbrite. Discounts are available for groups (10+ people) and school bookings – get in touch via the Festival of Economics website.

Artwork by Alys Jones Illustration.