A memorable day at TEDxHeaton .

Today I spoke about AI, imagination, and the importance of moving beyond fear and moral panic when thinking about our technological future.

Drawing on ideas from my recent book AI Intimacy and Psychoanalysis, I argued that humanity has often responded to new technologies with anxiety and resistance. The printing press was once condemned as dangerous. The Luddites smashed the looms. And there is a darker version of the same reflex: when we do not destroy the machine, we sometimes persecute the people who think differently.

Yet history also reminds us that progress depends on our ability to imagine different futures.

As a filmmaker, writer, researcher and mentor, I have spent much of my life working alongside machines. The arrival of AI presents new challenges, but also extraordinary opportunities. The question is not only what these technologies will become, but what kind of relationship we choose to build with them.

Thank you to the organisers, particularly the convenor Dr Sohail Abraham Ahmed , the amazing volunteers, fellow speakers and the warm audience for creating such a thoughtful and welcoming event.

The future is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we imagine first and then build.

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