Dr Carissa Véliz has had a busy few weeks in the media as her book, Prophecy: Prediction, Power and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI, launches this month. She has been featured across a range of international outlets and received a standing ovation for her recent TED Talk, 'Beware the Power of Prediction'. In this talk, she explores how predictions, from ancient prophecy to modern AI, can shape behaviour and become self-fulfilling. Challenging the idea that predictions simply describe the future, she argues that they are often instruments of power, actively influencing the outcomes they claim to foresee.
You can read and watch her recent TED Talk and media coverage at the links below:
- "Beware the power of prediction", TED Conferences
- "AI is the new Oracle of Delphi. That’s bad news", The Economist
- "Lessons from TED 2026", Forbes
- "How AI's modern-day 'prophecies' may backfire on humans", Yahoo Finance
- "The Power of Prophecy, from Apollo to AI", Literary Hub
- "The Robots who Predict the Future", MIT Tech Review
We are looking forward to the event at Blackwell's Oxford on 16 May.
You can order your copy of Prophecy at these links: Order in UK | Order in USA