WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
Technology’s impact on human jobs and work isn’t disputed but increasingly powerful technologies now threaten more workers so we need to be prepared.
Firstly, thank you to the UK Government and Matthew Taylor and his team at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) for inviting me contribute and play a part in putting together the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practises report that was presented to and formally unveiled by the UK government’s Prime Minister Theresa May in July 2017.
As we race headlong into an increasingly complex and furious future, where science fiction becomes science fact, where “machines” in all their forms, from Artificial Intelligent (AI) avatars and robo’s and increasingly sophisticated robots, continue to encroach on human jobs as wide ranging as scientists and surgeons, as well as creatives, drivers, and warehouse workers, in my opinion at least we need to develop concrete coping strategies that prepare us all for what’s coming.
While the future is indeed fast and furious, with even the EU saying that AI and automation “will affect every strata of EU society,” today we do have the insights and tools we need to map it and navigate it, but needless to say it’s down to us to envision it, understand it, and lead it.
After all, come 2035 or sooner, one of the phrases I certainly don’t want to hear ushered in the halls of government is “Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” because that it not a strategy, and by that point it could be too late to stem the fallout.
You can download and read the full report below: