Are you tired of the non-stop utopian/dystopian AI predictions from CEOs? Do you want to hear what's ACTUALLY happening, from the people it's actually happening TO? If so, I have good news: I felt the same, so I have worn out my shoe-leather & written this book! www.penguin.co.uk/books/462159...

It was such a pleasure to discuss my book We Are Not Machines with David Runciman. Taylorism, Hannah Arendt, robots - all my fave things! He says, very kindly: "We don't often talk about new books on this podcast. When we do, it's because we think they are really good. And that is true of this one."

Here's a tip. If you've just finished writing a book while also holding down a job, and you really put your heart into it, and you're very tired, and your 6 year-old asks if she can draw your portrait? IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT SAY YES.

I don't really get this rationale. Are senior career diplomats incapable of picking up the phone? Could they and the PM not have conversations, if that's what both sides thought was useful?

So looking forward to this! I love going to the British Academy's Ideas Festival (formerly known as the Summer Showcase) but have never had the chance to speak at it before.

Does negative chocolate pricing mean you can now get paid to eat chocolate #askingforafriend

Are YOU an established novelist who has won at least one presitigious prize? Would you like a new job reading AI-generated novels and plays?? No???

Also the question I ask myself at least once a day when I arrive in a room in my house & can't remember why www.ft.com/content/4819... (but more importantly: welcome to the FT @nigella.bsky.social!!)

Our 6 year old got a label-maker ❤️

In spite of all the talk of Claude Code and Codex meaning the end of humans writing code, software job adverts are actually going up, according to @jburnmurdoch.ft.com's crunching of millions of job ads for this week's The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/7325...

Striking chart on the gender skew among AI researchers. In academia, the number of top AI scientists who are women has been growing slowly. In the private sector? Not so much. (chart from this vg paper from Uni of Chicago bfi.uchicago.edu/working-pape...)

FT commenters are the best commenters (from this v good piece about the OpenClaw craze in China www.ft.com/content/e242...)

Great piece from @soumayakeynes.ft.com today on economic warfare. www.ft.com/content/b9f1...

I love that this headline is the most-read thing on FT.com

Great reporting from @rafeuddin.ft.com on Amazon's misadventures with AI coding (which have coincided with big headcount reductions) www.ft.com/content/7cab...

Economists: you know I love you, but I think it's time you gave it a rest with all these "which jobs are most exposed to AI?" analyses. www.ft.com/content/8d3b...

Really good piece from @emmavj.bsky.social about the rise in AI slop employment claims. A reminder that tools which make individuals more productive (in this case, in writing claims) does not necessarily make a system more productive. Sometimes the opposite. www.ft.com/content/afc3...

Such a good piece today from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com which shows that the declining graduate premium is very much a UK problem rather than a general (or inevevitable) consequence of more people going to uni www.ft.com/content/649d...

Wise words from... *checks notes* Jeff Bezos (in 2017)...

Good piece from Martin Wolf today about why people are fretting way too much about the prospect of declining birth rates/falling population. www.ft.com/content/0ae2...

Ahhh this writing. @stephenkb.bsky.social is so good!

The FT's live Ask an Expert finally getting onto the good stuff... www.ft.com/content/c330...

What a drive-by from @chrisgiles.ft.com! "In his first term, Trump thought the then 47-year-old former Fed governor was too youthful and good looking to command respect. Eight years on, that has all changed." www.ft.com/content/167c...

🚨NEW PODCAST🚨 Why are so many graduates struggling to find a job? @sarahoconnorft.ft.com and @stish.bsky.social join me to discuss why young people leaving university are having a tough time in the labour market. Listen here: insideyoured.com

‘Our analysis of job postings data from the US, UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands shows no clear evidence that AI is behind the slowdown in early-career employment across much of the west’ @jburnmurdoch.ft.com @sarahoconnorft.ft.com www.ft.com/content/7fbc...

Once upon a time, a President of the United States saying "fuck you" and raising his middle finger to an American factory worker would be front page news around the world. Now it's a "colour lede" on a business analysis. www.ft.com/content/36ab...

In which @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and @sarahoconnorft.ft.com discuss how social scientists have been using AI to write code for data analysis, and what this means for other professionals who do similar work … like data journalists: www.ft.com/content/9183...

I'm not really one for lengthy "what I read this year" lists, so here's a super short one. The best fiction book I read was Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beauman. The best non-fiction book I read was Private Revolutions by @yuanfenyang.bsky.social. I recommend them both heartily!!

If AI is coming for junior lawyers’ jobs, why does their pay keep going up? Our latest AI Shift newsletter... www.ft.com/content/1d85...

Isn't it funny how your brain just knows when you've left one gulp of tea in a cup, somewhere in the house. Like, somehow you just know you're one gulp short of having drunk a whole cup. Is this a uniquely British skill, I wonder?

Are "Made by Humans" labels going to be the new Fairtrade? On why transparency about how AI is used in creative endeavours is trickier than it sounds, but better than just giving up www.ft.com/content/bab5...

It's so important to read splashy findings about the impact of AI on jobs with a critical eye 🤔 @sarahoconnorft.ft.com and John Burn-Murdoch are spot on here - highlighting issues I see in these studies time and time again. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... #EconSky 3 of the big ones... [1/5]

Sure, we're the weak and decaying ones...

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

In 2016, godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said: "People should stop training radiologists now." In this week's The AI Shift newsletter, we ask: why are there still so many radiologists?? www.ft.com/content/f2e0...

This week's FT AI shift newsletter is so far up my street, it's practically parked on my drive - On how, despite AI leaders predictions of doom, there are now growing numbers of radiologists and how those professionals are working with AI @sarahoconnorft.ft.com @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

If you're lucky enough to be able to read the @financialtimes.com these evidence-based conversations between @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and @sarahoconnorft.ft.com are particularly fascinating. Here's the latest.

Out of interest, I just checked my Facebook feed. I had to scroll through 86 posts before I saw one from someone I know. (shout out to @groomb.bsky.social whose post it was!)

"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975 “It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975

I was on hiring teams in 2012/13 where we would routinely go from applications closing to making offers within 3 weeks, sometimes 2! Because our team prioritised an efficient process. These days, as an employee, anything faster than 3 months is basically unheard of.

Another one for you, @dlknowles.bsky.social

Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...

Via @sarahoconnorft.ft.com Am seeing similar in so many other settings. Eg planning applications: -> Firms now offering 'AI' solutions to opponents of big developments. So expect similar to emerge for those in favour, and even more for 'assessing' docs targeted at under-resourced #Localgov.

Depressing @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and @sarahoconnorft.ft.com newsletter today - general use of AI in crafting job applications now makes it impossible to identify the best candidates. So a probable return to "it's not what you know, it's who you know" recruitment? Top work everyone!

From the always interesting AI Shift newsletter by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and @sarahoconnorft.ft.com: AI is maximising job applications and word counts, in vicious circle of doom kind of ways

"If a country as rich as Norway can’t afford to stick to principles, who can?" Great edition of the Free Lunch newsletter today by @martinsandbu.ft.com on Norway suspending its $2.1 trillion oil fund's ethics rules. www.ft.com/content/f6b3...