Hobsbawm writes new book on 'amazing age' of work and AI

Writer and futurist Julia Hobsbawm’s new book, Working Assumptions: What We thought We Knew Before Covid and Generative AI – And  What We Know Now, will be published globally by Whitefox in association with Fully Connected, the author’s podcasting and broadcasting company, on 25th April 2024. 

Working Assumptions will explore the speed and scale of the impact of Covid-19 and the eruption of Chat GPT on the workplace, working attitudes and norms. It will offer “a clear-eyed view of what Julia identifies as ‘The Amazing Age’ — a new era replete with challenge and opportunity for working people on at a pace not seen in over a century,” Whitefox said. 

The deal for world English language rights was done with John Bond and Julia Koppitz at Whitefox, directly with Hobsbawm.

Working Assumptions will provide new analysis and data on six essential areas: jobs and skills, commuting and office life, culture, wellbeing, leadership and generational shifts and “a rapid-response book to the seismic changes affecting working life", the publisher said.

In addition to drawing together Hobsbawm’s columns from Bloomberg Work Shift, it will also feature interviews with Arianna Huffington of Thrive Global, technology futurist Azeem Azhar and Professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, among others.

Additionally award winning graphic novelist and comics illustrator Nicola Streeten will use an AI illustration tool, Microsoft Bing’s DALL-E, to provide a series of line drawings used throughout the book. 

Hobsbawm said: “As the quantum shift in how we live and work continues to develop exponentially, the questions of how humans and machines work together gains new salience. I wanted to draw together various strands of my thinking, publishing and broadcasting around work together in a rapid-response collection of ideas.

"Although we are at a significant inflection point, we are also on the cusp of a truly amazing age, in which not only are we seeing generational shifts affecting work, but work is affected by generational AI which in turn is constantly being reborn.”  

Hobsbawm is an award-winning writer, speaker and consultant about the future of work.