Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Professor Carl-Benedikt Frey joins us to discuss the implementation of technology, innovation and progress studies - all themes in his new book, How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation and the Fate of Nations.
Are economic and technological progress historically inevitable? If you look at the arc of progress over the past millennium, you may think so. But behind all innovations have been agentive individuals and societies that implement technology, rightly and wrongly. Progress is not linear; periods of great technological innovation have frequently been precipitated by social unrest, war and revolution. How can we harness AI, automation, and progress for the greater good, whilst avoiding the mistakes made by societies that failed to do so?
Professor Carl-Benedikt Frey is the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI and Work at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also the Director of the Future of Work Programme at the Oxford Martin School. His previous work includes The Technology Trap (2019) and "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization". He is a leading thinker researching the socio-economic impacts of technological innovation.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Start
00:57 - Intro
2:23 - Geography, Culture or Institutions: The Soviet Union
8:01 - What Japan tells us about catch-up growth
11:22 - China under Deng Xiaoping vs today
14:34 - US productivity and the decline of dynamism
17:50 - Will AI boost productivity?
21:58 - Q&A
47:29 - End
Professor Carl-Benedikt Frey joins us to discuss the implementation of technology, innovation and progress studies - all themes in his new book, How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation and the Fate of Nations.
Are economic and technological progress historically inevitable? If you look at the arc of progress over the past millennium, you may think so. But behind all innovations have been agentive individuals and societies that implement technology, rightly and wrongly. Progress is not linear; periods of great technological innovation have frequently been precipitated by social unrest, war and revolution. How can we harness AI, automation, and progress for the greater good, whilst avoiding the mistakes made by societies that failed to do so?
Professor Carl-Benedikt Frey is the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI and Work at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also the Director of the Future of Work Programme at the Oxford Martin School. His previous work includes The Technology Trap (2019) and "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization". He is a leading thinker researching the socio-economic impacts of technological innovation.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Start
00:57 - Intro
2:23 - Geography, Culture or Institutions: The Soviet Union
8:01 - What Japan tells us about catch-up growth
11:22 - China under Deng Xiaoping vs today
14:34 - US productivity and the decline of dynamism
17:50 - Will AI boost productivity?
21:58 - Q&A
47:29 - End
