Few thinkers have captured the tension between innovation and society quite like Carl Benedikt Frey. As Associate Professor of AI and Work at the University of Oxford, his research has shaped how governments, businesses, and individuals understand the coming wave of technological change.
In this Prosper Live session, Carl joins Nick Perrett, Prosper’s Founder and CEO, for a wide-ranging exploration of how artificial intelligence is transforming the global economy and what history can teach us about navigating its disruption. From the Industrial Revolution to the rise of automation, Carl argues that progress depends on a delicate equilibrium: the freedom to explore and invent, balanced by the institutions capable of scaling and governing those breakthroughs.
It’s a timely conversation in an age when AI promises both extraordinary productivity and deep uncertainty. Drawing on ideas from his acclaimed book The Technology Trap and his recent writings in the Financial Times, Carl challenges us to rethink what “technological progress” really means and who stands to benefit.