It takes a lot to frighten Zee. The 35-year-old father of two rarely gets flustered: not when he first set out on the 4,000-mile journey from his family home in Pakistan to the UK more than a decade ago; not during the years he spent struggling for survival on the fringes of Britain's formal economy; not when the Home Office threatened to deport him, plunging his young family into uncertainty. But the cold, foggy, final hours of 24 January this year – they felt different. "My heart was pounding," Zee remembers. That was the night Zee and his colleagues at Amazon's BHX4 warehouse in Coventry decided to make history, abandoning their workstations and launching an unprecedented stoppage to demand higher wages. They had walked out before, in a spontaneous, ad hoc protest. But this was different: a carefully planned and legal effort, the likes of which Amazon UK had never faced. Standing in their way at the exit gates was a line of senior managers who had the power to make or break each worker's future, staring down anyone who might dare to pass. "As midnight struck, I kept catching other people's eyes: do we go, or do we stay?" Zee recalls. "We didn't know what would happen if we crossed that threshold. But we did know that somebody, somewhere had to be the first to try."

"I prefer to stay out of politics." Those were Elon Musk's words when the tech exec was forced to respond to a claim by Texas governor Greg Abbott that he supported the state's anti-abortion laws. If so, Mr Musk has a funny way of showing it. Over his decade-plus of public fame as the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, the South-African-born tycoon has attacked everyone and everything, from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders through individual regulatory officials to Covid rules, trade unions, and "pronouns". On Monday, he hammered US president Joe Biden's flagship infrastructure and social spending bills for granting unnecessary subsidies to the electric car industry and increasing the "insane" federal budget deficit.

A play written by an artificial intelligence (AI) program was planned to be presented in Prague this month, to mark the invention of robots (or at least the idea of robots) in the same city exactly one hundred years ago. COVID-19 got in the way of that, and it will now only be available free online late next month. The future is quite different than they expected it would be like. Josef Capek's play, Rossum's Universal Robots: RUR, was an instant hit in 1921. It was his brother, Karel, who came up with the name.

South African enterprises will need to make complex ethical choices about how they leverage artificial intelligence (AI) over the coming years as lawmakers and regulators struggle to keep pace with the speed at which the technology is maturing and with the rate of adoption among local organisations. That's the word from Tarsus Technology Solutions managing director, Mike Rogers, who says that the wide-ranging social and economic potential of AI means that companies cannot treat it merely as another software tool. They should also examine how it will affect their customers, employees and the wider society in which they operate. Says Rogers: "We anticipate that AI will become a foundational technology for most companies within the next five years, one with as much disruptive potential as the Internet and the smartphone. Given its potential impact on employment, consumer rights and the wider economy, companies need to take a proactive stance on the ethical issues AI raises. "If business does not take the initiative, we could see the promulgation of heavy-handed yet belated laws and regulations that hamper South African companies' ability to use AI for competitive advantage.

We are under the threat of closure all the time,

The World Bank has a reassuring message for those fearful of being made obsolete by automation. The robot age is nothing to be worried about. Just like all previous waves of technological advance, the fourth industrial revolution will create rather than destroy jobs, so fears of mass unemployment are largely unfounded. Nor should we be concerned that the arrival of the new machine age is going to widen the gap between rich and poor, because the idea that the world is becoming a less equal place is more perception than reality. Automation, according to the bank's World Development Report, is an opportunity not a threat.

Over 6,000 people are attending a conference focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) that opened in Amsterdam this morning. World Summit AI brings together corporates, startups, investors, scientists, academics, NGOs along with government bodies like the UN, EU and the World Economic Forum. Participants will be learning about some of the latest innovations in AI – the creation of human-like technology - that will transform business and the ethical issues that come with it. The event coincides with Artificial Intelligence in Europe, a report by Microsoft that reveals over half of the companies surveyed expect AI to have an impact on "business areas that are entirely unknown today". Yet only 4% of companies actively use AI suggesting European businesses, at least, have an enormous mountain to climb.

Over 6,000 people are attending a conference focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) that opened in Amsterdam this morning. World Summit AI brings together corporates, startups, investors, scientists, academics, NGOs along with government bodies like the UN, EU and the World Economic Forum. Participants will be learning about some of the latest innovations in AI – the creation of human-like technology - that will transform business and the ethical issues that come with it. The event coincides with Artificial Intelligence in Europe, a report by Microsoft that reveals over half of the companies surveyed expect AI to have an impact on "business areas that are entirely unknown today". Yet only 4% of companies actively use AI suggesting European businesses, at least, have an enormous mountain to climb.

Its proposed solutions, while excellent, are partial and create the impression that the underlying purpose of this report was to make academia's voice heard in Whitehall and secure new long-term funding. No one doubts the stature of the UK's universities and research institutes, or the world-leading AI and robotics expertise within them, but by appearing to regard AI solely as an academic discipline, the report misses nearly all of the most important challenges facing the UK. As noted above, this report is interesting because it pushes the voices of workers to the front of the debate on the impact of AI. Too often we get drawn into the excitement around the potential of automation, the opportunities that could be gained, without thinking about the people that could be left behind as a result. Let's hope that this new commission can apply real pressure to the government to come up with an effective strategy and some new practical policies around addressing the forthcoming changes – working with citizens, employees and trade unions, rather than against them.

The robots are coming, artificial intelligence is expanding, yet no one is doing enough to make sure workers benefit rather than losing out. According to a new survey, a quarter of the workforce think their job won't be needed in future. Many of us expect the technological revolution to be as disruptive as the industrial revolution. This could bring amazing opportunities and emancipation, but also new forms of exploitation, deeper inequalities, injustices and anger. Trades unions and communities can't just stand by and hope for the best.