Technology and Development Seminar: Silicon Empires

Book Launch: Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI by Nick Srnicek

Technology, Inequality and Development Research Group Seminar

Join us for the launch of Nick Srnicek’s timely and provocative new book, Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI (Polity Press 2025). Since the rise of generative AI, hype has obscured the deeper question: who really controls this transformative technology? In this incisive work, Srnicek maps the geopolitical economy of AI, exposing the strategies of tech giants and powerful states as they battle for dominance in the global AI race.

From Silicon Valley boardrooms to government war rooms, Silicon Empires reveals how corporate ambition and national rivalry are reshaping the future of wealth, labour, and global power.

Speakers

Nick Srnicek is a political economist and Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy at King’s College London. He is the author of Platform Capitalism (2017) and co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (2015). His research examines the political economy of digital technologies, automation, and artificial intelligence.