NEW TECHNOLOGICAL ANXIETIES: In Search of Inclusive Innovation Strategies

Description

Current advances in artificial intelligence and robots have rekindled social anxieties over the impact of new technologies on employment. The concerns have inspired a series of responses which include taxing robots and providing guaranteed minimum basic income. Others, however, argue that the adoption of new technologies will alter the structure of employment without leading to net job losses.  This lecture argued that lessons from historical trends may not be useful sources of ideas for addressing the challenges. This is because of significant differences in the pace of change, global scope of disruptions and breadth of public perceptions on relations between innovation and economic inequalities. The combined impacts of these dynamics could hamper innovation and undermine the ability of society to benefit from technological advances. The lecture proposed the adoption of national policies that promote inclusive innovation. The lecture drew from the speaker’s new book, Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies which analyses case studies of technological controversy over the last 600 years.