Author: automata

Why a Struggling Town Voted Against a Basic Income

Why a Struggling Town Voted Against a Basic Income

Smiths Falls is a small town in Ontario that has been absolutely devastated by the realities of the modern economy over the last decade or so.

First , in 2004, a group home for the mentally disabled that employed 800 people announced its closing. Then in 2007 came what many thought might be the death blow for the economically depressed community: the Hershey’s chocolate plant, which had been a fixture of the local economy for decades, shipped out to Mexico . But that wasn’t all—one year later, Stanley Tools, a manufacturing company, also said it would shutter for good. […]

Growing Georgia factory holds lessons, cautions for Trump job promise

Growing Georgia factory holds lessons, cautions for Trump job promise

December 1, 2016 Fort Valley – Daniel Stripling looks at a job order screen on the assembly line at the company’s plant and headquarters in Fort Valley. The screens show what needs to be done on each bus, as each bus on the assembly line is typically different from others on the line. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM FORT VALLEY, Ga. — As a welder’s sparks flew, a cage of silver ribs grew around the worker, as if Jonah’s whale had surfaced in Blue Bird Corp.’s factory and swallowed him up.

Down the 89-year-old company’s assembly line, dozens of metal skeletons […]

White House: To Prevent AI From Killing Jobs, Educate the Workforce

White House: To Prevent AI From Killing Jobs, Educate the Workforce

Image Credit: jeffedoe/Flickr Earlier this week, a team lead by the Executive Office of the President released a report examining automation’s potential impact on the economy. The findings were far from reassuring, especially for low-skilled workers.

The paper notes that artificial intelligence technologies could lead to economic benefits, but “[t]hose economic benefits, however, will not necessarily be evenly distributed across society.”

The White House said that other researchers have projected potential job losses in the next 20 years at anywhere from 9 percent to 47 percent, and that lower-skilled and lower-paid jobs are likely to be most at risk : Research […]

How Minnesota’s community and technical colleges are responding to the rise of robots

How Minnesota's community and technical colleges are responding to the rise of robots

William Hiniker is among a number of Minnesota workers who have returned to school to upgrade their skills in an increasingly competitive employment market. William Hiniker is pursuing an associate degree at Dunwoody College of Technology, and he’s pretty confident about his future.

“I know that once I finish this program, I can get a job pretty much anywhere I want,” said Hiniker, who’s worked as a mechanic at a Shakopee landscape company and served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. “There’s no doubt about it.”

In today’s slow-growth economy, that isn’t something many first-year college students can say […]

We must do something about jobs for young people in a world of automation

We must do something about jobs for young people in a world of automation

As technology advances and changes our economy, young jobseekers will bear the brunt of changes in the labour market. With the increasing automation of jobs traditionally occupied by young workers and professionals, a whole generation could face a dystopian future if policymakers fail to act.

A report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia argues that a new wave of automation is allowing machines to “replicate aspects of human thought” . Classical economists as far back as Adam Smith argued that technological advancements and economic change go hand in hand , but the latest shift seems set to change […]

Get ready for robolution!

Get ready for robolution!

How industrial robots will shape the work to come

Industry 4.0 is one of the most discussed topic worldwide. All over the world, the race for innovation has become one on the main challenges that nations and companies have to face, working to create new policies able to take into account factors like Big Data, digitization and industrial robots .

According to many, the latter is about to revolutionize every piece of our lives, and is about to transform the world into something where everything is automated and interconnected, where everything is based on digital technologies, and where men and […]

White House: To Prevent AI From Killing Jobs, Educate the Workforce

White House: To Prevent AI From Killing Jobs, Educate the Workforce

Image Credit: jeffedoe/Flickr Earlier this week, a team lead by the Executive Office of the President released a report examining automation’s potential impact on the economy. The findings were far from reassuring, especially for low-skilled workers.

The paper notes that artificial intelligence technologies could lead to economic benefits, but “[t]hose economic benefits, however, will not necessarily be evenly distributed across society.”

The White House said that other researchers have projected potential job losses in the next 20 years at anywhere from 9 percent to 47 percent, and that lower-skilled and lower-paid jobs are likely to be most at risk : Research […]

Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Robots Stealing Your Jobs

Why You Shouldn’t Worry About Robots Stealing Your Jobs

Rogue One , the latest in the Star Wars franchise, has had mixed reviews but features one undisputed star: K-2SO, a gangly robot with the best lines. Movies of the distant future always tap into current anxieties, and the latest alarm is that the robots are coming. Droids may not conquer the world, but they will take over its work—white-collar as well as blue-collar. Could these filmmakers know something we don’t?

Previous scares, such as when TIME magazine reported on "the automation jobless" in the early 1960s, were just that. But many technology gurus insist that this time is different […]

Universal Basic Income: Why Finland Is Giving Out Free Cash

Universal Basic Income: Why Finland Is Giving Out Free Cash

Create! Finland, Universal Income By Althea Estrella, www.vanguarddaily.com December 22nd, 2016 Above Photo: From Pixabay

In an experiment aimed at establishing whether or not a universal basic income scheme would reap more benefits than disadvantages, Finland will be giving out free cash to a number of its citizens.

While the country has a relatively high unemployment rate due to the number of jobs lost as a consequence of Nokia’s discontinuance of its mobile phone production — only a few of Finland’s unemployed are in a rush to score new jobs.The bizarre trend in the country is due to an unemployment benefits […]

US: White House report rejects Basic Income as a solution to automation worries

US: White House report rejects Basic Income as a solution to automation worries

The most recent report from the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers mentions, but rejects, the suggestion that a universal basic income be implemented to mitigate economic disruption caused by the automation of labor.

On December 20, the Council of Economic Advisers to US President Barack Obama released a report on policy responses to the threat of job loss due to artificial intelligence (AI) and other labor-displacing technologies.

The report recommends three general strategies: (1) greater investment in AI research (noting that, despite the challenges posed by technological unemployment, AI promises myriad benefits), (2) job training and education for the […]