With the publication of the Government’s ten-year Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy and a pledge to make the UK a global leader in the ‘governance of AI technologies’, Dr Phil Garnett traces the roots and drivers of a technology that is evolving at an accelerating pace. He explores how familiar virtual assistance technologies such as Alexa can be used to normalise the presence of AI in our daily lives, making the public much more receptive to the emergence of a tech that also has a darker side. Dr Garnett questions whether regulators, legislators and industry leaders will ever catch up with a tech that seems tailor made for an age of complexity, specialisation and information overload - but which has serious ethical, social and economic implications for the way we live. AI - an uncomfortable necessity is a talk from Dr Philip Garnett in the York Management School at the University of York, given as part of the annual YorkTalks event in January 2022.