Daniel Susskind

This talk explores two futures for the professions. Both of these rest upon technology. Traditionally, many people have imagined that only blue-collar workers are challenged by automation; yet white collar-workers are now within reach as well. In the future, we will neither need nor want professionals -- lawyers, doctors, accountants, teachers, architects, the clergy, consultants, and many others -- to work as they did in the 20th century. In this pragmatic and optimistic talk, Daniel Susskind explains why, and sets out how leaders in the professions can prepare to flourish in the decades to come.

New technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines. In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet Daniel Susskind explains why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk. So how can we all thrive in the future? Susskind reminds us that technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind's oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenge will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the centre of our lives. In this pragmatic and optimistic talk, Daniel Susskind shows us the way.

When the pandemic began, the hope was that it would be a short-lived crisis. Economies would need to be temporarily placed in suspended animation but once the virus had passed – in a matter of weeks, it was thought – we would swiftly return to economic life as usual. As we now know, this hope turned out to be misplaced. The consequences of the virus are going to be with us for some time. And this is particularly true for the world of work. Overnight, at the start of the pandemic, labour markets were transformed – telemedicine, virtual courts, online education, remote working, became the norm. It is clear now we are not going back to our pre-COVID-19 working lives. This talk explains why – and how we ought to respond.

This talk explores the future of education and training. Every day, we hear stories of new technologies taking on tasks and activities that, until recently, we thought only human beings could ever do: making medical diagnoses and driving cars, drafting legal contracts and designing buildings, composing music and writing news reports. To prepare people for the future of work, we have to radically re-think our education system: transforming ‘what’ we teach, ‘how’ we teach, and ‘when’ we teach. The challenge is that, at the moment, our educational institutions are still preparing workers for the 20th century, rather than the 21st.

Over the last few years there has been a frenzy of writing and discussion about technology and the future of work. But the ideas are so sprawling and contradictory it can often seem like we know even less than before all this analysis began. This talk is a response to this uncertainty and confusion: it explores the different myths that have emerged about the future of work, clears up the mistaken thinking that currently clouds our vision of what lies ahead, and explains how we can prepare for challenging but exciting decades to come.

Over the last few years, there has been a great deal of excitement about the ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI). But at times, it is hard to distinguish between genuine advances, and the hype and exaggeration that often accompanies the technology. This talk explores the history and the future of AI, identifying the changes that really have taken place in the field, and explaining why they matter so much for thinking about the future of work. In decades to come, AI is going to continue to take activities that, in the past, we thought only human beings alone could ever do. Understanding why, and exploring the consequences, is a critically important task.