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November 2026 – Didcot Cafe Scientifique, Justin Fanstone, The AI Reality Check: Notes from Five Years Inside the Machine and the Realities of the Modern Workplace
November 17 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Didcot Cafe Scientifique, Tuesday 17th November 2026, 7.30 – 9pm
Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
Justin Fanstone, The AI Reality Check: Notes from Five Years Inside the Machine and the Realities of the Modern Workplace
Since the public arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022, the narrative around artificial intelligence has swung violently between apocalyptic panic and transformative hype. But what does AI adoption actually look like when stripped of Silicon Valley sales pitches and tested against everyday operations?
Drawing on five years inside Google alongside direct governance experience across higher education, charitable organisations, housing, and early-stage ventures, this talk offers a pragmatic ground-truth assessment of the modern workplace. We will examine where AI tools are quietly delivering genuine value, where high-profile implementations have fallen flat, and why widespread predictions of catastrophic job losses have largely failed to materialise on the ground. Finally, we will look toward emerging technical trends, demystify the conversation surrounding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and explore what this evolving landscape truly means for professionals, organisations, and society in the years ahead.
Justin is a commercially focussed technologist who has spent his career helping organisations implement technology to deliver business benefit. Most recently his digital transformation work at Google has focussed on leveraging data analytics and artificial intelligence to develop insights that deliver quality improvements and business efficiencies.
Justin has a keen interest in how technology and artificial intelligence will transform the future of society. He serves as an External Governor at the University of Portsmouth, an Independent Board Advisor at the disability equality charity Scope and as a Non-Executive Director at Raven Housing Trust and flexible workspace app Reef.