FULLY BOOKED

Roger, Chairman of Capital Economics, will speak about his latest book—The AI Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age—in which he argues that automation and advances in AI will be a huge positive influence on our lives in the coming future.

Extraordinary innovations in robotics and Artificial Intelligence promise to transform our lives. But will these changes be for the better or for the worse? In this talk, acclaimed economist Roger Bootle offers his views on this important question.

The dominant theme in most accounts of this subject is decidedly downbeat: supposedly humans face the loss of their jobs and even their freedom and identity as robots and AI take over. By contrast, Bootle gives a resoundingly optimistic view of our future in the Robot Age. Some jobs will disappear but others will take their place. What’s more, it will predominantly be the drudgery jobs that go and the new ones will centre on human beings’ unique qualities and on their relationships with each other. Far from a penurious future, we will be much better off.

One of Britain's best-known economists, Roger Bootle is the Chairman of Capital Economics, one of the world’s largest macroeconomics consultancies, which he founded after a long career in the City of London, including being Group Chief Economist of HSBC. Roger appears frequently on television and radio and is also a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of widely acclaimed books including Making a Success of Brexit, The Trouble with Markets, Money for Nothing and The Death of Inflation. He has advised government, parliament and numerous businesses and has won several honours and awards. In 2012, Roger and a team from Capital Economics won the prestigious Wolfson Economics Prize.

We open doors at 6pm and the talk itself will begin at 6.30pm, with a Q&A session taking place after the lecture at approximately 7:15pm.