The AI will see you now

Abstract

• There are serious concerns about the rise of automation and robots taking our jobs. But AI entering the workplace also presents a unique opportunity to rethink how we live and work. Are we headed for a utopia in which intelligent machines do many tasks, enabling us to spend more time doing what we want? Or are we facing a future which will leave many human workers behind? About the event In our popular Data Debate series, panellists from a range of backgrounds and perspectives give their take on the central question of the event - in this case, 'what does the changing future of work mean for humans?' - before a short group discussion and a lively audience Q&A. Our expert panel includes: Naomi Clayton is Policy and Research Manager at Centre for Cities. She has responsibility for developing and overseeing the delivery of the Centre’s research programmes, including its work on the future of work. She is also Deputy Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. She has over twelve years of experience working in economic development and has a particular interest in labour market dynamics, skills, business and innovation. Her expertise lies in using research and analysis to support policy makers to make evidence-based decisions on the development of city economies. Naomi is an experienced speaker and commentator on a range of urban and economic issues. Naomi joined the Centre for Cities in March 2011 from the Work Foundation where she worked as a Senior Researcher leading a major research programme on labour market disadvantage. She has also completed a Fellowship with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust exploring US cities’ approaches to improving young people’s employment prospects. Dr Keith Grimes is Clinical Innovation Direction at Babylon Health, and a GP with nearly 20 years of experience at the front line of primary care. A keen advocate of the power of technology to deliver widespread quality improvement, he has experience of delivering award winning Digital Medicine projects, as well as pioneering work in Clinical Immersive Technology, and Artificial Intelligence. He is an expert panellist on the Topol Review, an independent report on preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future, and lead of the Babylon Clinical AI Fellow Programme. Helen Hester is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the University of West London. Her research interests include technofeminism, social reproduction, and post-work politics, and she is a member of the international feminist working group Laboria Cuboniks. She is co-author of After Work: The Politics of Free Time (Verso, 2019, with Nick Srnicek). Dr Phoebe V Moore is an associate professor in Political Economy and Technology at University of Leicester School of Business. Dr Moore researches the impact of new technologies on workers. Her latest book, The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts (Routledge 2018) looks at the use of self-tracking, monitoring, automation and artificial intelligence in workplaces now found on the streets, in the homes, in offices and factories. Moore has provided international reports for the International Labour Organisation and European Union on digitalisation and artificial intelligence at work and has appeared several times in international and national news on these topics for such outlets as Radio 4, the Financial Times and Wired. Sanna Ojanpera is a researcher and doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and at The Alan Turing Institute. She is a Future of Work Fellow with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the lead author of a recent report on the future of work published by The Alan Turing Institute. Sanna's doctoral research investigates the relationship between accessing work through online platforms and informality, and how these practices impact inequality, social exclusion, well-being, productivity and economic complexity. She also co-convenes the Data and Inequality Interest Group at The Alan Turing Institute and through her research in the Big Data and Development Research Cluster and the Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality Research Group at the University of Oxford endeavours to understand what development is and could be in the era of ever increasing data and computing abilities. Chaired by writer and broadcaster Timandra Harkness. Timandra presents BBC Radio 4 series, FutureProofing and has presented the documentaries, Data, Data Everywhere, Personality Politics & The Singularity.