5 Caledonian Road
Tue 15 Sept · 19:00 · £163
Join us for the launch of this brilliant analysis of capital accumulation in the AI era that charts a roadmap for battling against the predatory concentration of knowledge, data and narratives in the hands of Big Tech, by award winning economist Cecilis Rikap, in conversation with Aisha Down, Tech Correspondant at The Guardian. Capitalism’s rulers are not abstract entities or shadowy operators. Amazon, Microsoft and Google are the cloud hegemons that subsume the world through the exercise of their intellectual monopolies. Giants like Disney, McDonalds, Nike or Walmart depend on them to use AI for knowledge and value extraction and for disciplining workers. States see some of their core functions sequestered. Innovation is not a free and neutral game, but a hierarchy topped by the rulers. Cecilia Rikap’s new theoretical framework is grounded in a unique trove of 112 interviews at the world’s largest firms and data on venture capital, acquisitions, open source, AI conferences and patents. They picture a map of the complexities and political implications of corporate power. In Rikap’s counterimage, technology is developed by the people and for the people and the planet through democratic planning. Our Speakers: Cecilia Rikap is an Associate Professor in Economics and Head of Research at the University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She is also a tenure researcher of the CONICET, Argentina’s national research council, and associate researcher at COSTECH lab, Université de Technologie de Compiègne. She is the author of Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered (Routledge), which recently won the EAEPE Joan Robinson Prize Competition, and The Digital Innovation Race: Conceptualizing the Emerging New World Order (Palgrave), the latter co-authored with B.A.K. Lundvall. Aisha Down is an investigative journalist based in London, covering artificial intelligence for The Guardian. She spent six years at OCCRP reporting on financial crime in the Middle East and Sahel. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, NPR and other outlets. Her investigation into a multi-billion-dollar money laundering scheme at the Central Bank of Iraq won a 2024 SABEW award for international reporting. She began her career at The Cambodia Daily, Cambodia’s award-winning national paper. She holds a degree in Physics and English from Harvard University. PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED TO SEPTEMBER 15TH Cecilia and Aisha will be in conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by an open discussion with the audience. As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected], and a free ticket will be made available. If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email [email protected]. Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.