Author: automata

Amazon finds new way to help robots take human jobs – with reptile-based tech

Amazon finds new way to help robots take human jobs – with reptile-based tech

It’s a touchy problem, with a sticky solution.

Robots working in warehouses and product distribution centers lack the dexterity to perform certain tasks.

As Amazon notes in a patent received this week, “One heretofore significant drawback in such automation has been the difficulty that robotic inventory handlers have in manipulating objects that are irregularly shaped, irregularly positioned, or collapsible.”In its ongoing efforts to replace human labor with machines, Amazon has patented a technology derived from the humble gecko, a wall-climbing lizard known for its adhesive feet.To help clumsy-handed robots grab and move problematic items – which could also include airport baggage […]

Cash For All In Developing World? Algeria Ponders Universal Basic Income

Cash For All In Developing World? Algeria Ponders Universal Basic Income

It’s the big idea of the moment among certain economists and activists in the West: Universal basic income (UBI), a policy of allocating a fixed amount of money to every citizen, is seen by some as a way to confront rising unemployment — particularly in the face of automation — in developed countries.

But while UBI has been tested (with mixed results) in local experiments and national referendums in Europe, some are now considering whether it could also be a recipe in the developing world. Last week, the think tank NABNI (French acronym for "Our Algeria Built on New Ideas") […]

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

When it comes to robots and AI, the world is facing a change unlike anything we have ever witnessed.

The future belongs to the machines Unite spokesman Tony Burke has spoken of his unions fear on how technology is going to change the workplace forever. Burke on a Sky News report said the world is facing a change in employment as we have never faced before. It will impact mainly on the poorest who do everyday jobs with a possibility of 15 million jobs disappearing in the future.

It will impact even those jobs that lead to a promotion for […]

Five pension freedom problems that could be costing you money in retirement

Five pension freedom problems that could be costing you money in retirement

Retirees could be overpaying tax, missing out on investment growth or losing other valuable pension benefits by taking all of their money out of their pension and moving it to a savings account, while others are potentially getting a poor pension deal by not shopping around, a new review of the retirement market has found.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has carried out the most in-depth study of the pension freedoms to date. The pension freedoms were introduced in April 2015, giving pension savers the option to take all of their money out of their pension pot in one […]

When “Welfare Reform” Meant Expanding Benefits

When “Welfare Reform” Meant Expanding Benefits

Nixon and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 1970 Today when politicians talk about reforming SNAP, Medicaid, or Medicare, we can be pretty certain they mean reducing benefits. But almost 50 years ago, politicians proposed, and sometimes won, social benefit reforms that actually made aid programs more comprehensive. And, as Richard P. Nathan explains, one important agent of this effort was none other than Richard Nixon.

Nixon was a well-known opponent of the expansion of federal benefits under Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program . Years after he left office, his domestic policy chief recalled that Nixon thought the programs wouldn’t be […]

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

When it comes to robots and AI, the world is facing a change unlike anything we have ever witnessed.

The future belongs to the machines Unite spokesman Tony Burke has spoken of his unions fear on how technology is going to change the workplace forever. Burke on a Sky News report said the world is facing a change in employment as we have never faced before. It will impact mainly on the poorest who do everyday jobs with a possibility of 15 million jobs disappearing in the future.

It will impact even those jobs that lead to a promotion for […]

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

Rise of the robots: Government not fully prepared for this change in employment

When it comes to robots and AI, the world is facing a change unlike anything we have ever witnessed.

The future belongs to the machines Unite spokesman Tony Burke has spoken of his unions fear on how technology is going to change the workplace forever. Burke on a Sky News report said the world is facing a change in employment as we have never faced before. It will impact mainly on the poorest who do everyday jobs with a possibility of 15 million jobs disappearing in the future.

It will impact even those jobs that lead to a promotion for […]

Concerns raised by regulator over savers’ use of pension freedoms

Concerns raised by regulator over savers’ use of pension freedoms

A review of the newly liberalised pensions market has highlighted a number of concerns, including money being withdrawn from pensions and moved into savings due to a ‘lack of trust’. A year-long review of the retirement income market post pension freedoms by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has identified a ‘number of shortcomings’ in the system.

It found that accessing pension pots early has become ‘the new norm’ with 72% of pots accessed by those aged under 65. Most of these people are choosing to take lump sums rather than a regular income.

The FCA found that 53% of pots accessed […]

Are robots really going to steal our jobs?

Are robots really going to steal our jobs?

PwC analysis suggests that a third of UK and German workers will be at risk by 2030, but other research claims that robots are job creators. We look at both sides of the debate

Automation is nothing new. Industries all over the world have been subject to advances in technology over the course of centuries, even millennia.

Such advances through history, however, have often been met with resistance, especially when human capital is on the line in the short term. Indeed, being dubbed a Luddite stretches back to the early 1800s when handloom weavers protested against the mechanisation of the […]

This website will tell you if robots are going to take over your job

This website will tell you if robots are going to take over your job

A robot playing a trumpet With technology continuously increasing at breakneck speed daily, there’s always a certain level of fear about whether or not your choice of career is going to be around forever. While many may worry that the advent of computers will take away the human touch in many jobs, due to the fact they’re cheaper to pay, and easier to use, one website has done the hard work and has answered the age-old question of “will robots take my job?”

The aptly-titled Will Robots Take My Job will answer that exact question for you. Punch in your […]