6:00pm-7:30pm on Thursday 14 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Waterstones, Cambridge, 22 Sidney Street, CB2 3HG
As part of the Cambridge Festival, Verity Harding, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, will discuss her new book – entitled AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own – with Professor Dame Diane Coyle, from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge.
Verity will draw from her book some inspiring lessons from the histories of three 20th-century tech revolutions – the space race, in vitro fertilisation and the internet – to draw us into the conversation about AI and its possible futures.
She argues that it is critical for society to take the lead in ensuring that AI fulfils its promise to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
AI Needs You gives us hope that we, the people, can imbue AI with a deep intentionality that reflects our best values, ideals and interests, and that serves the public good. AI will permeate our lives in unforeseeable ways, but it is clear that the shape of AI’s future – and of our own – cannot be left only to those building it. It is up to us to guide this technology away from our worst fears and towards a future that we can trust and believe in.
Verity will be in conversation with Professor Dame Diane Coyle, author of Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be.
A book signing will follow the event.
About the guests:
Verity Harding is Director of the AI and Geopolitics Project at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge, and Founder of Formation Advisory, a consultancy firm that advises on the future of technology and society. She worked for many years as Global Head of Policy for Google DeepMind and as a political adviser to Britain’s deputy prime minister.
Professor Dame Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She co-directs the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. She was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester, has held several public service roles and was awarded a DBE for her contribution to the public understanding of economics in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List. Her book Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be is an exploration of the enormous problems and opportunities facing economics today.
