Artificial Intelligence and the Wealth of Nations: A conversation with James Whittaker
Are we prepared for the AI revolution? Businesses, governments, and individuals are just beginning to see the possibilities of AI to enhance human productivity and accelerate innovation. They are also waking up, perhaps not fast enough, to how AI will uproot entire sectors of the economy and how it will change the nature of work. Even more significant, AI may alter the entire foundation of what the economy is, with potentially profound changes to the capacity of governments to fund themselves. The AI revolution is not just a technological development, it may also be a political revolution as well.
But technological revolutions are by their nature disruptive, challenging patterns of social and political life. The questions they engender are likewise often the same. Who are winners and losers? Who is in control? We may take solace in past technological revolutions that although the disruptions are profound, they are eventually overcome. Jobs are lost, but new ones gained.
But is this time different?
To make sense of the AI revolution, Professor Adam Dixon will sit down for a conversation with noted technologist and AI pioneer James Whittaker.
To attend this event delivered by Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh Business School, register via Eventbrite. Please note due to the intimate nature of Panmure House, places are limited.
James Whittaker is a technology executive with a career that spans academia, start-ups and top tech companies. In 1986 he had the distinction of being the first computer science graduate to be hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he worked to automate Agent's caseloads. He then entered graduate school at the University of Tennessee where he received his PhD in computer science in 1992.
Following academia, James worked as a freelance developer specialising in test automation, working for IBM, Ericsson, SAP, Cisco and Microsoft. James has engaged with publishing papers and patents, winning millions in sponsored research. Continually involved with AI development and business throughout his career he now speaks widely on subjects pertaining to the future of man and machine.
He regularly speaks to technical, marketing and advertising audiences to challenge people to think differently about the future. Of his five technical books, two are best-sellers and two have been Jolt Award finalists.
Adam D. Dixon is the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Adam Smith’s Panmure House, the last and final home of moral philosopher and father of economics Adam Smith. Adam is responsible for developing and leading academic research at Panmure House on sustainable capitalism, focusing inter alia on the role of the global finance industry, the role of the state, and the role of corporations. Trained as an economic geographer and political economist, Adam brings an interdisciplinary perspective to this work.