Programme Director @ UCD Innovation Academy / Anthropologist & Futurist in Innovation / TV Presenter / Radio Show & Podcast Presenter / Keynote Speaker / Provocateur
If we do nothing, we are handing the future of our society to a handful of tech titans—Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and others—unelected leaders who are shaping what humanity values and how we live. Do we really want our future dictated by corporate decisions optimised for profit? While they talk of “saving humanity,” the cost of AI’s unchecked growth is being offloaded onto the most vulnerable communities—those least equipped to fight back. Large-scale AI models are not neutral progress. Training systems like GPT-4 releases emissions equivalent to 10,000 round trips between Los Angeles and New York City. Where do these impacts land? In marginalised areas where data centres cluster, air and water are polluted, and per-household health costs are 200 times higher than in better-protected regions. This isn’t just about environmental damage—it’s about justice. The hype around AI obscures its reality. While tech leaders speak of “transforming society,” we must ask: whose society? At what cost? Left unchecked, AI development will entrench inequality, concentrating power and wealth in the hands of a few while entire communities pay the price. But it doesn’t have to be this way. AI can serve humanity, not exploit it. To get there, we must demand transparency, sustainability, and accountability. Companies must report their energy usage and emissions. Harmful impacts must be addressed, not ignored. Efficient algorithms, clean energy solutions, and decentralised systems are not optional—they’re essential. Most importantly, we must reclaim the narrative. AI should not be something done to us—it should work with us and for us. Communities bearing the greatest burden deserve a seat at the table, shaping a future where AI delivers on its promise without leaving people behind. This isn’t a call to fear AI; it’s a call to responsibility. If we don’t act now, the future will be shaped without us—by leaders whose interests don’t align with ours. We have a choice: let others decide what society looks like, or stand up, demand better, and ensure AI builds a fairer, more sustainable future. The clock is ticking.
Dr Lollie Mancey will the EU AI act give sufficient leverage to address some of the concerns raised here?
We have to shout this message - you had me at do you want Elon deciding the future?!!! Emphatically the answer has to be NO.
So right Lollie, if we aren’t creating intentional societies we are creating symptomatic societies riddled with dysfunction and inequity.
We already handed our future to tech titans decades ago. We're living in that very future right now.
When I posted about where the concentration of power will end up when Elon and Donald Trump eventually win the whitehouse, two weeks before the official result, my post got 1000s of impressions. The exact same post put up after the elections got nada: " I dont do politics can't comment ". Even though I made it clear, no matter who won the race to the whitehouse, the question would be the same : " who or what has all the power to control AI "? The best solution I see is the call to Rome AI Ethics: it has only managed to get every relgion in the world to sign the charter in Hiroshima. Not lost on anyone that it was on the anniversary of the nuclear horror when we last experiminted with a technology as existential as AI. But if we cannot discuss this very real and present danger here on the worlds biggest professional social media platform where can we? Dr Lollie Mancey
Was having this exact conversation with Gary Walker earlier, as the hype and pundits start to call some of the AI Tools names like "Chief of Research" or "VP of Marketing". Ridiculous. 🤯 Why? We were both were around for the dot boom's, big data, etc. etc we know the cycles and what to ignore and what to question. AI is a tool, even agents and assistants pushes it's current application. I agree with being involved, but also personally I am sitting back for a bit, after 25 years in tech, I have learned to watch and wait until the current hype cycle dies down. I am keeping my focus on training more leaders on remote-first models of organisational design. 💪
Couldn’t agree more. This is a collective responsibility for us all to be ethical in our choices and wield any purchase power we have intentionally and wisely.
I saw a comment recently that said something along the lines of : I want robots to do my cleaning and laundry so I can spend more time on painting and writing, not for the robots to write and paint for me. A lot of truth to that.
The great David McWiliams describes them as the “Bro-tocracy”. This is worth a listen https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/id1462649946?i=1000680820422
Digitalisation, Creativity, Sustainability Evangelist at Siemens
3dI described them as Digital Colonialists in a paper over eleven years ago… Musk, Zuckerberg and their overlord Peter Thiel…. No one was listening when I said all this at the Future of the Internet Assembly in Dublin and then a few months later at the European Network of Living Labs Summer School in Manchester.. I said we needed to wrest back control through a Protocol (of trust) but everyone was drunk on the kool aid. Maybe we’ll have more luck this time, maybe people will wake up this time…