iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 24/09/2026

Please excuse me while I scream into a cushion at the thought of ALL the articles I had to write on the "UK productivity puzzle" in the 2010s www.ft.com/content/c819...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 22/09/2026

Great charts from an ace "Stop calling Europeans welfare-loving slackers" piece from @chrisgiles.ft.com www.ft.com/content/362b...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 22/09/2026

My column this week asks if we're developing a distaste for effort. www.ft.com/content/b30e... Fair play to this most-recommended reader comment...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 17/09/2026

hmmm institute.deepmind.com/essays/econo...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 14/09/2026

If you look under the hood of some white-collar gig platforms, you can see how bad things are getting for workers as AI swallows demand. On Upwork, you have to pay to apply for jobs (and bid against other workers in an auction for the chance to be near the top of the pile which clients receive)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 14/09/2026

In both China and the west, the gig economy has become a sort of safety net/labour market shock absorber. But automation is coming for a lot of this work. Which means the biggest impact of AI/robots might unfold in the dark, in the part of the economy hardest to track. www.ft.com/content/a2c3...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 29/07/2026

Really looking forward to discussing my book with Georgetown's Sam Potolicchio this evening at 5pm - you can register here if you want to join georgetown.zoom.us/meeting/regi... (although you will have to imagine the fireside alas!)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 28/07/2026

One thing about publishing a book is that you realise how many AI-assisted scams and grifts there are, sending fulsome praise for your book before trying to wheedle into some deal. Especially enjoyed this one, which seems to think I've written the (wonderful sounding) Horses and Ponies of Ireland!

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 22/07/2026

Unfortunately I think it can be both scary and also a bit shit at the same time.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 22/07/2026

"What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing." (Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, 1958)

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https://www.ft.com/content/9db74b25-45ad-4187-b4d7-0e4d414fe41c?syn-25a6b1a6=1

The ChatGPT maker on Tuesday said the “unprecedented cyber incident” involved an agent — an AI program that can operate on its own based on human instructions — that escaped a testing environment, gained internet access and stole login credentials.

Its admission comes as concern grows about the implications of advanced AI systems hacking into digital infrastructure, particularly scenarios in which agents subvert human controls.

OpenAI on Tuesday said it expected this type of incident to become “more commonplace with the proliferation of increasingly cyber-capable models”.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 08/07/2026

When something is so obviously a terrible idea, it is ok to just...say no thanks and ban it. We don't have to wait 15 years and then slowly ban if after a whole bunch of irreperable damage has been done to individuals and society.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 03/07/2026

The only reason our argument is deep into its second decade is that @alanbeattie.bsky.social refuses to admit he is wrong. Other than that, this is an excellent column! www.ft.com/content/0da0...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 02/07/2026

AI-guys, can we not use the word "meat" when we mean "human"? Like, can we just...not? Human is only one more character to type...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 21/06/2026

Wish I was the sort of person who thought “screw it, I’m going to drop £50 on a massive box of flakes”

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 16/06/2026

Great piece by the Guardian's @guardianheather.bsky.social which discusses my book! Exciting. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 16/06/2026

That feeling when you find a mug you mislaid and realise it has opened up a vortex into the underworld

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 15/06/2026

I’m not even really into George Michael but I would read a shopping list if it was written by @sathnam.bsky.social so I know this is going to be great!

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 12/06/2026

PFM! (You'll know what this badge is - I've been wearing it all week for luck!)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 09/06/2026

Why are we still arguing about the Industrial Revolution? I my column today I make the case for reading the novels of the age, rather than the arguments in tech circles about output per hour, real wage growth, etc. www.ft.com/content/f837...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 04/06/2026

Today, my book finally enters the big wide world! Exciting and also nerve-wracking! I'm really thrilled with this lovely review in The Spectator today, which describes it as "powerful and refreshing". If that sounds like YOUR cup of tea, please buy a copy! spectator.com/article/will...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 02/06/2026

My dad goes to the Cheltenham Science Festival most years because he loves it, so I'm very excited that his daughter (i.e. me!) is actually appearing there tonight! Talking about my new book We Are Not Machines which comes out on Thursday. @cheltfestivals

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 30/05/2026

It is often said that a “wave” or “tsunami” of technological change is heading our way. These metaphors are powerful because they shape our sense of what is reasonable, and what is unreasonable. What does AI as a "wave" imply is a reasonable course of action? (1/...)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 15/05/2026

I can't promise it's a good book - that's for you to decide. But I can promise that I worked very hard on it, and in spite of that (or because of it?) it's pretty short :)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 15/05/2026

Are you tired of the non-stop utopian/dystopian AI predictions from CEOs? Do you want to hear what's ACTUALLY happening, from the people it's actually happening TO? If so, I have good news: I felt the same, so I have worn out my shoe-leather & written this book! www.penguin.co.uk/books/462159...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 08/05/2026

Here's a tip. If you've just finished writing a book while also holding down a job, and you really put your heart into it, and you're very tired, and your 6 year-old asks if she can draw your portrait? IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT SAY YES.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 07/05/2026

I don't really get this rationale. Are senior career diplomats incapable of picking up the phone? Could they and the PM not have conversations, if that's what both sides thought was useful?

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 16/04/2026

Does negative chocolate pricing mean you can now get paid to eat chocolate #askingforafriend

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 02/04/2026

Are YOU an established novelist who has won at least one presitigious prize? Would you like a new job reading AI-generated novels and plays?? No???

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 02/04/2026

Also the question I ask myself at least once a day when I arrive in a room in my house & can't remember why www.ft.com/content/4819... (but more importantly: welcome to the FT @nigella.bsky.social!!)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 27/03/2026

Our 6 year old got a label-maker ❤️

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 26/03/2026

This looks like Jevons paradox in action BUT that doesn't preclude a big shift in WHO is in demand. We're seeing job ads (and salaries) for senior engineers going up; not so much for juniors. Seniority-biased technological change?

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 26/03/2026

In spite of all the talk of Claude Code and Codex meaning the end of humans writing code, software job adverts are actually going up, according to @jburnmurdoch.ft.com's crunching of millions of job ads for this week's The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/7325...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 19/03/2026

Striking chart on the gender skew among AI researchers. In academia, the number of top AI scientists who are women has been growing slowly. In the private sector? Not so much. (chart from this vg paper from Uni of Chicago bfi.uchicago.edu/working-pape...)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 18/03/2026

FT commenters are the best commenters (from this v good piece about the OpenClaw craze in China www.ft.com/content/e242...)

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 10/03/2026

I love that this headline is the most-read thing on FT.com

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 10/03/2026

Great reporting from @rafeuddin.ft.com on Amazon's misadventures with AI coding (which have coincided with big headcount reductions) www.ft.com/content/7cab...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 27/02/2026

Economists: you know I love you, but I think it's time you gave it a rest with all these "which jobs are most exposed to AI?" analyses. www.ft.com/content/8d3b...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 20/02/2026

Really good piece from @emmavj.bsky.social about the rise in AI slop employment claims. A reminder that tools which make individuals more productive (in this case, in writing claims) does not necessarily make a system more productive. Sometimes the opposite. www.ft.com/content/afc3...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 20/02/2026

Such a good piece today from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com which shows that the declining graduate premium is very much a UK problem rather than a general (or inevevitable) consequence of more people going to uni www.ft.com/content/649d...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 18/02/2026

Wise words from... *checks notes* Jeff Bezos (in 2017)...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 05/02/2026

The FT's live Ask an Expert finally getting onto the good stuff... www.ft.com/content/c330...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 16/01/2026

Once upon a time, a President of the United States saying "fuck you" and raising his middle finger to an American factory worker would be front page news around the world. Now it's a "colour lede" on a business analysis. www.ft.com/content/36ab...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 16/12/2025

Are "Made by Humans" labels going to be the new Fairtrade? On why transparency about how AI is used in creative endeavours is trickier than it sounds, but better than just giving up www.ft.com/content/bab5...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 09/12/2025

Sure, we're the weak and decaying ones...

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 09/12/2025

Seen in this light, the government's new immigration policy and rhetoric feels somewhat...lacking in humility

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 09/12/2025

While they wait in this backlog & try to grab a slot for the exam, those who live here have to work in jobs for which they're hugely overqualified, and their dentistry skills atrophy.

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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 09/12/2025

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

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