AI and the Future of Work David Beer, David Stillwell, Juana Torres-Cierpe and John McDermid (Chair)
Event details
Discussions about the introduction of AI in the workplace can divide opinion. Should we see this future trajectory as releasing workers from repetitive tasks and increasing efficiency and productivity? Or is there a risk of jobs being lost and a decrease in empathy and human interaction? What control would there be over the algorithms being used by AI?
There is certainly a role for AI for unsafe tasks that people should not, or cannot, do, but ‘low-value’ tasks are an important part of the learning curve for many employees. Our work is also an important way we define ourselves in society. Will AI open up new opportunities or threaten traditional patterns of work?
Following the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris, join our panel of expert speakers from France and the UK as they discuss whether we should fear or embrace AI in the workplace. Our speakers include David Beer of the University of York, David Stillwell of the University of Cambridge and Juana Torres-Cierpe of LaborIA. The session is chaired by John McDermid, Director of the Centre for Assuring Autonomy at the University of York.
This event is part of the Festival Focus ‘Securing Our Future’ presented in collaboration with the French Embassy in the UK. You may also be interested in 'Protecting Our Blue Planet' taking place on Wednesday 11 June.
About the speakers
David Beer is a Professor of Sociology at the University of York, UK. His work explores how transformations in technology and media reshape culture and society. His focus is often upon questions of power. Amongst other things, this has included work on the politics of data and metrics, the social power of algorithms, the tensions of AI and the dynamics of social media. Alongside this, he works on the history and future of social thought – with a focus on imagination, creativity and inspiration. David’s books include The Tensions of Algorithmic Thinking: Automation, Intelligence and the Politics of Knowing (Bristol University Press, 2023), Social Media and the Automatic Production of Memory: Classification, Ranking and the Sorting of the Past (co-authored with Ben Jacobsen - Bristol University Press, 2021) and The Quirks of Digital Culture (Emerald, 2019). He is on the editorial boards of the journals Theory, Culture & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Cultural Sociology (where he is currently chair of the editorial board), Dialogues on Digital Society and Big Data & Society.
Professor John McDermid OBE is the Director of the Centre for Assuring Autonomy at the University of York. John has worked on safety of complex, computer and software-controlled systems for almost 40 years, leading major research initiatives and acting as advisor to industry and government on several continents. He first started work on safety of AI-controlled systems in the early 2000s (neural networks for engine control for Rolls-Royce, adaptive flight control for NASA). Since January 2018 he has led a major initiative supported by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, addressing the safety and assurance of AI and autonomous systems across a wide range of domains (e.g. health, autonomous vehicles, maritime, mining/quarrying) and with global reach. His recent activities around AI safety include advising the UK Department of Transport and Law Commission on safety and ethics for the introduction of self-driving vehicles to the UK; advising on strategy for AI and Data Science for the UK’s National Physical Laboratory; advising the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on their strategy for assuring and regulating AI; presenting at two fringe events for the first International AI Safety summit and he was a Senior Advisor in the production of the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI for the second AI Safety Summit in Korea.
David Stillwell is Professor of Computational Social Science, Deputy Director of the MBA Programme and Academic Director of the Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge. His research uses big data to understand psychology. He published papers showing using social media data from millions of consenting individuals to illustrate that the computer can predict a user’s personality as accurately as their spouse can. Follow-up research found that personalising an advert to the recipient’s psychology is more effective than generic ads. David has spoken at workshops organised by the EU Data Protection Supervisor, by the European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel, to UK government regulators, and to the Bank of England. His research has also been cited by many governments’ national data protection regulators worldwide. David does consultancy on the topics of psychometrics, people analytics, and big data. He has worked on projects with companies including Amazon Payments, Barclays, Hilton Hotels, RBS, Shell, and Ubisoft.
Dr Juana Torres-Cierpe is a Sociologist of Labour and a researcher at LaborIA, hosted by Inria, the French national institute for research in digital science and technology. Her work focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence on the world of work, particularly in the French public sector. Before this, she specialised in the relationship between workers and technology, conducting research on platform capitalism for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in London, and on the invisible labour behind AI at Télécom Paris University. In Chile, she worked on topics such as precariousness, new forms of work, and trade unionism, and collaborated with international institutions such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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