The AI Revolution: Hype, History & Real-World Impact

Steve delivered a comprehensive exploration of artificial intelligence, tracing its evolution from Alan Turing's pioneering theoretical foundations in the 1950s through the expert systems era of the 1970s and 1980s, the machine learning revolution of the 1990s and 2000s, and culminating in today's deep learning breakthroughs. Drawing on real world examples spanning gaming AI (DeepBlue, AlphaGo), everyday applications (voice assistants, recommendation algorithms), and creative tools (DALL-E, Midjourney), he demonstrated how AI has progressively embedded itself into daily life. The session then pivoted to address the elephant in the room: widespread job displacement. Taking a pragmatic, systems thinking approach, Steve challenged the audience to confront the fundamental incompatibility between capitalism's current structure and an economy where AI replaces the majority of traditional employment. He advocated for radical policy interventions, including Universal Basic Income (UBI), to ensure social stability and human flourishing in an automated future. The talk concluded with an energetic live Q&A, where Chester's tech community engaged in spirited debate about the practical implementation challenges, economic feasibility, and societal implications of transitioning to post work economic models.