Ben Pring is the director of Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work. In 2018 he was a Bilderberg Meeting participant and in 2020 was named one of world’s top management thinkers by Thinkers 50. 

He co-authored Monster: A Tough Love Letter On Taming the Machines that Rule Our Jobs, Lives and Code Halos with Paul Roehrig, and Future, What To Do When Machines Do Everything with Roehrig & Malcolm Frank.

BEN PRING

They’re single-purpose engines doing one thing in extraordinary ways, and they’ve been encouraged in that by the ecosystem around them, by the funding that’s being pumped into them by people whose only motivation is simply to make more money–and you can see the results of that in the world as this technology has grown from a little acorn to now being the biggest Sequoia in the forest. And it’s shading every other tree, it’s taking all the light, it’s taking all the energy from the forest, and it’s distorting so much in the world.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk & Jansen Baier with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Jansen Baier. Digital Media Coordinator is Hannah Story Brown.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.