'Dawn of AI is the modern Industrial Revolution'

The Last Machine Breaker is the brainchild of Huddersfield-born composer Ben Crick

A new opera will compare the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) with the impact of the Industrial Revolution in West Yorkshire.

The Last Machine Breaker, by Huddersfield composer Ben Crick, will tour Yorkshire next month as part of the Bradford Opera Festival.

The opera will contrast the social impact of AI with the technological advancements experienced in the early 1800s.

Crick, known for telling stories of the North of England through opera, described the project as his "most personal to date", saying it explored the "link to who we are now from where we were then".

The Last Machine Breaker is set across two different timelines - 1813 and 2030 - telling the stories of characters living through each respective generation.

Crick said: "I've been banging on about this for the last five years.

"I could see it coming - these great challenges when there's this massive technological advancement in quite a short period of time.

"It obviously has knock-on effects for the communities, and this happened before in Huddersfield in 1812, where a labour market is massively disrupted by the implementation of technology."

'Life-and-death questions'

Performances will take place in Bradford, Leeds and Skipton.

It will also be shown in Marsden, which is considered the birthplace of the Luddites, the 19th-Century mill workers who opposed the introduction of new machinery out of fear it would lead to unemployment and reduced wages.

Crick said: "Technology is coming and the Luddites knew this.

"Society asks questions like, 'What do we do with the people who aren't needed by the industry where technology replaces them?'

"These are life-and-death questions about how society is going to treat people who are left behind by technology.

"These questions have been asked here in West Yorkshire 200 years back, so what can we learn from the history of the North that might help us today?"

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.