| | FEBRUARY 20208By Jeffrey Sharkey, Principal, Royal Conservatoire of ScotlandPianist and composer Prof. Jeffrey became Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in September 2014, leading Scotland's national conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production and screen.If experts are to be believed we sit on the cusp of a new indus-trial revolution. This time it's a cognitive revolution; one in which robots and Artificial Intelligence will eventually undertake all but a few functions and tasks, the ones that require the very human qual-ities of emotional intelligence and empathy. While this may be a scary prospect for some, I would boldly suggest this is a time of opportuni-ty for artists, for creative learning and for institutions like my own.Here in the UK the creative industries are the fastest growing part of the economy, contributing £91.8 billion gross value added (GVA) in 2016, which was bigger than the automotive, life scienc-es, aerospace, oil and gas sectors combined. In India, too, the cur-rent contribution as well as future growth trajectories of the cultural sector and the creative industries more widely, offers huge potential for employment, as well as socio-economic impact of consid-erable scale. THOUGHT LEADERSHIPTHE ARTS, THE ECONOMY & THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONJeffrey Sharkey
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