Huddersfield Opera Writer Frames AI as New Industrial Revolution

Ben Crick, a composer from Huddersfield, argues in a new opera that the rise of artificial intelligence marks a modern industrial revolution, reshaping society as fundamentally as the 19th-century mechanization era. The work, commissioned by the Bradford Opera Festival, draws direct parallels between the historical Luddite protests and today’s growing pushback against AI’s impact on labor and creativity.

Crick’s upcoming production weaves two timelines: one in 1812, following Luddite machine-breakers, and another in 2030, centering on a tech entrepreneur shaping humanoid AI. He suggests that the original Luddites weren’t opposed to technology itself, but to the deeper inequalities it wrought—an insight he applies to modern AI debates.

He sees echoes in towns like Bradford and Huddersfield, which were transformed by early industrialization, and warns that similar disruptive shifts are underway now. Crick urges society to heed historical lessons and proactively steer AI toward fairness, not repeat past mistakes of inequality.

The opera aims not only to tell a story but to spark dialogue: Can we manage AI’s social consequences before they spiral out? Crick hopes his work offers a cultural lens on tech, inviting audiences to question whether we truly control our machines—or the other way around.