Claude Have Mercy

Many thanks to everyone who came out last night to the ‘Claude Have Mercy’ talk at the very cool (literally, figuratively) Rocketvan Studios Bar! So enjoyed talking AI, jobs and what a better future might hold.

Very much interested in taking this on the road, so do get in touch if that’s something you’d be up for. Event description here:

Seriously, what is going on with AI and jobs? Can we actually build a future that works, and work that is fit for the future?

Believe the hype and we’ll all be sipping Negronis with our feet up while the bots do the grunt work.

But look at the labour market stats – or your 100th job rejection – and it seems like it’ll be Musk smelling the flowers and Altman sipping the malt, while millions of us are automated away and left wondering HTF they were allowed to steal our words, our art, our music and sell slop back to us.

But… look even closer, and it’s a bit more complicated, and offers a bunch more hope.

In this invigorating call to action, writer and speaker Kester Brewin – acclaimed author of Godlike: a 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters – draws on his experience working in AI labour market research and takes us on a wild ride through the long history of AI, and how past industrial revolutions changed work – and how we do life together.

Calling on Frankenstein, Faustus, Eliza, Eve, and a monk burned at the stake, in this wild ride through history, we’ll see how – together – we might just be able to make a future that works for the many, not just a few tech bros.

Practical, poetic and provocative, CLAUDE HAVE MERCY is a people-centred, innovation-positive take for lawyers, musicians, cab drivers, coders, illustrators, architects and everyone else… one that resists CoPilot crashing to earth and burning us all.