Politics in the Pub 2026

AI is transforming our world – helping diagnose disease, accelerating scientific discovery and making technology more accessible. As increasingly powerful AI gathers pace, some of the people building these systems are warning that we may be creating something we could ultimately struggle to control.

AI optimists see the technology as a potential problem-solver, capable of helping humanity tackle our biggest challenges. Others warn that uncontrolled AI poses an existential threat to humanity, potentially within the next decade. With the development of powerful AI concentrated in the hands of a small number of mega companies, questions about oversight, regulation and who gets to decide AI’s future are becoming urgent.

Is it too late to take back control? Can governments move fast enough to regulate a technology evolving at speed? And how do we harness AI’s potential without creating risks we can’t undo?

Join us for a lively discussion about AI, power, regulation, risk and the future of humanity, and the question at the heart of it all: are we building the technology that will save us, or the technology that could replace us?