AI and big data: for better, for worse? - Data Matters

Drawing on a comparison with the Industrial Revolution, tech philosopher Dr. Tom Chatfield explores the impact of technology on society, and the role businesses have to play in shaping a new world driven by artificial intelligence and big data in advance of InterSystems UK's Tech Summit on 18th October. The first industrial revolution saw the birth not only of world-changing machines, but also of a passionate debate around what societies in this new world should look like. Decades of political strife gradually saw the regulation of labor markets, the enshrinement of mass education and enfranchisement, the birth of universal suffrage and healthcare. In the face of their own transformation by engines of mass production, societies asked what safe, secure and meaningful employment looked like in this new world – and what it meant for people to live worthwhile lives amid sweeping global and demographic transitions. The world of the 1950s would have been unrecognizable to the 1850s not only in terms of its tools, but also in the working conditions, prosperity and expectations of the average worker.