Calum Chace

Chace studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) at Oxford University. His interest in AI stems from his reading of science fiction, which he describes as philosophy in fancy dress. == Career ==

Prior to becoming a full-time writer and speaker in 2012, Chace had a 30-year career in journalism and business. He trained as a journalist with the BBC, and later he wrote for the FT. As of 2019, he was a contributor to Forbes magazine. He moved into business, and ran a media practice at KPMG's strategic and commercial intelligence group before serving as director and CEO for a number of businesses. He has published five books on artificial intelligence. In 2017, Chace co-founded the Economic Singularity Club, "a loose group of technologists, academics and writers who think the threat of mass technological unemployment is worth taking seriously". Publications Talks In July 2019, Chace was listed among the top 50 futurist speakers in the world. In 2025 he was ranked sixth in a list of the world's top futurist professionals by Global Gurus TOP30, a research organization. == Economic singularity ==

Chace coined the term the economic singularity to mean the time when technological unemployment becomes a reality. He argues that "it is at least a serious possibility that within a generation, many or even most people will be unemployable because machines will be able to do whatever they could do for money better, cheaper and faster. We should be taking this possibility seriously and working out what we would do about it." “In the past, automation hasn’t caused lasting unemployment and has raised the level of wealth in the economy and created new jobs, but past examples of automation have replaced our muscle power and we had our cognitive abilities.” So what will happen when robots automate our cognitive work? "When they start seeing cars driving around with no one driving them, people will realise how impressive computers are. If we don't have a plan, people will panic." “I think our best hope going forward is figuring out how to live in an economy of radical abundance, where machines do all the work, and we basically play.” == Conscium ==

In 2024, Chace and four other co-founders launched Conscium, an AI safety company led by CEO Daniel Hulme. Conscium has three workstreams: 1) accelerating the development of neuromorphic computing, 2) evaluating AI agents, and 3) exploring the possibility and desirability of machine consciousness. In March 2025 the Conscium team launched a non-profit organisation called PRISM (Partnership for Research Into Sentient Machines) to stimulate research into the feasibility of machine consciousness, how to detect it, and whether it would be desirable. ==External links==