The discussion about automation, digitisation, and their implications is completely different in Africa. “For us, technology is not about automation, but about how to make it easier for us to solve our major problems,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, a marketing expert…

Denis McDonough used to go on night walks with President Obama at the end of the work day. In the course of one stroll, Obama told him about a technology which had struck him during a trip to San Francisco:…

When vision has a desk The word vision has a biblical ring to it, evoking people crossing deserts and seas in search of unknown land. Or, mutatis mutandis, in search of a new solution – an app, a vaccine, a…

Google News’ algorithms associated “he” with “doctor” and “she” with “nurse.” Microsoft’s AI chatbot Tay pledged allegiance to Hitler within hours of being online. COMPAS, a risk-assessment programme, predicted black defendants were more likely to commit further crimes than they…

Jeremy Rifkin, 73 and born in Denver, Colorado, is a man of many occupations. He is a socio-economic theorist, an activist, a political advisor and the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends; a non-profit organisation whose goal is to…

Amidst all the talk of robots taking our jobs, the future of education is often assumed to be radically different – as though we will need entirely different skills, and hence an  entirely different educational system. But experienced educators suggest…

Dirk Ahlborn is a German-born entrepreneur who found success in crowdfunding projects. Ahlborn, along with a large team of workers spread across the globe, is now working to make Hyperloop travel a reality. The innovative system promises to transform transportation…

In April 2018, the Robotic Complex Breach Concept demonstration was conducted by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom at a base in southern Germany. Autonomous weapons were deployed to perform a variety of tasks, including a remote-controlled…

Our expectations for how the world should be have changed dramatically over time. The lives of the average middle-class worker in 2018 and that of the average worker in  1918 are pretty much incomparable. As Nat Ware, a consultant and…

Counting the days until Friday. Packing up your office, saying goodbye to your colleagues, and going home. From Monday on, being idle. The idea of cliff-edge retirement is rarely appealing anymore. Life after work is a fast-changing concept that needs…