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How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation and the Fate of Nations

talks
academic

Date & Time

Sat, 21 Mar 2026

19:00

Venue

Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre

View original & register

On Oxford Literary Festival - Events 2026

About this event

Carl Frey talks to Linda Yueh about technology's impact on progress and national development. An examination of how technological advancement affects economic growth, innovation cycles, and the future of nations in a digital age.

Why you should come

AI-powered

• Hear Carl Frey explain why institutional flexibility drives America’s technological leadership

• Learn from Linda Yueh how historical economic crashes inform current innovation policy

• Understand the 'Technology Trap' and how AI requires a balance of discovery and scaling

Event Highlights

  • Analysis of why some societies flourish technologically while others falter
  • Examination of the 'fragile balance' between decentralized discovery and centralized scaling
  • Discussion on how AI and MRNA vaccines impact institutional flexibility
  • Insights into how bureaucratic control can stifle global innovation
  • Conversation between a leading AI historian and a former BBC chief business correspondent

Speakers

Carl Frey

Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI and Work at the Oxford Internet Institute

Linda Yueh

Oxford University economics fellow and former BBC chief business correspondent

Programme

2:00pm

How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations

A one-hour talk and conversation between Carl Frey and Linda Yueh regarding the future of innovation.

Organized by: Oxford Literary Festival

Additional details loaded from organizer's website