Author: automata

Finland to provide 2000 citizens with free basic income next month

Finland to provide 2000 citizens with free basic income next month

Starting January 1, 2017 Finland will provide 2,000 unemployed citizens with 560 Euros every month for two years. The nation hopes that the basic income experiment will improve quality of life for its citizens while opening up new jobs.

If you currently collect unemployment in Finland, you risk losing your benefits if you start to bring in side income. The country has discovered that the regulations behind this safety net effectively deter people from seeking part-time jobs. Starting a new company or joining a startup is also risky, and many people need the reliability of an unemployment […]

Basic income pilot project a no-go for Smiths Falls town council

Smiths Falls Record News

The idea of Smiths Falls vying to be one of the municipalities in Ontario to test out a basic income pilot project was shot down at council’s committee of the whole meeting on Dec. 19.

The purpose of the basic income pilot project would be to test replacing the broad policing, control and monitoring present in the current Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) with a "modestly more generous" basic income which would be disbursed automatically to those living beneath a certain income.In a priority issue put forward by the town’s chief administrative officer, […]

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes And Others Pledge $10M Towards Universal Basic Income Research

Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes And Others Pledge $10M Towards Universal Basic Income Research

As technology gets more and more advanced, it stands to reason that the United States’ economy will continue to get more and more automated. And it follows in turn that as more and more jobs are lost to automation , more and more people will find themselves out of work and without any immediate apparent means of support. Naturally, opinions vary on solutions to the problem, and one of them is the concept of universal basic income, an idea which can now count Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes among its interested parties.

Hughes is just one of more than a hundred […]

This week’s poll: do you fear automation?

This week’s poll: do you fear automation?

Earlier this month, in a speech to an audience in Liverpool, Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned that automation technology will put millions of jobs at risk.

It’s a compelling and well-worn argument but one which is particularly relevant in an age when few professions or sectors of the economy are untouched by automation. Carney’s comments followed research published earlier this year by Citi and Oxford University claiming that 57 per cent of jobs across the OECD are at risk from automation.

Many commentators, particularly those from industries enjoying the biggest economic benefits from automation were quick to counter […]

Obama: In the Age of Autonomy, Universal Basic Income Will Enter Our Debates

Obama: In the Age of Autonomy, Universal Basic Income Will Enter Our Debates

Obama Talks AI and UBI

In a recent interview with Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, President Barack Obama discussed the importance of exploring the concept of universal basic income (UBI) as it relates to the rise of technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

AI could fundamentally change employment in the future, and Obama notes that is already ingrained in our daily lives in more ways than we could imagine, citing the medical and transportation industries at the forefront. And while AI is inevitably poised to create a more productive system and possibly a more efficient […]

Tech 2025 Workshop: Silicon Valley, Universal Basic Income, and the Future…

Tech 2025 Workshop: Silicon Valley, Universal Basic Income, and the Future...

" …automation and basic income is a development that will free us to do lots of incredible things that are more aligned with what it means to be human. ” — Albert Wenger (Partner, Union Square Ventures )

Experts vary in their assessment of exactly how many jobs may be lost due to the rise of automated technologies in the workforce (robot automation, driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence, etc.), but economists, technologists, and politicians alike agree that, for the most part, the number of jobs at risk of being squeezed out of existence could be in the tens of millions, globally, […]

In 2017, we’ll figure out if basic income makes sense

In 2017, we'll figure out if basic income makes sense

In 2017, we’ll have some real data available on whether universal basic income is a good idea.

Y Combinator’s Sam Altman is a big booster of the idea of a basic income. Brian Ach/Getty

The concept is simple enough: Governments pay people for doing nothing. In place of state benefits, people would receive income regardless of their situation. Proponents say that such a system could alleviate poverty, and help provide people who are just about managing with a little freedom to escape low quality jobs and access education. As more jobs are lost to automation, the argument goes, a universal […]

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen emphasises the necessity of a good education in today’s “changing economy”

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen emphasises the necessity of a good education in today's

Yellen’s speech to university graduates said a good education is key to economic success (Source: Getty) The US jobs market is the strongest its been in nearly a decade, but technological advancements and globalisation mean job seekers must have a good education, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said today, speaking to new graduates.

Advancements in technology and an increasingly globalised workplace mean there is more demand for higher-skilled jobs that require advanced degrees, Yellen said at a University of Baltimore commencement ceremony where she was set to receive an honorary degree.

Low-skilled jobs have been replaced by automation, and jobs requiring […]

Obama: In the Age of Autonomy, Universal Basic Income Will Enter Our Debates

Obama: In the Age of Autonomy, Universal Basic Income Will Enter Our Debates

OBAMA TALKS AI AND UBI

In a recent interview with Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, President Barack Obama discussed the importance of exploring the concept of universal basic income (UBI) as it relates to the rise of technology and artificial intelligence (AI). AI could fundamentally change employment in the future, and Obama notes that is already ingrained in our daily lives in more ways than we could imagine, citing the medical and transportation industries at the forefront. And […]

Rise of the robots

We need urgent and concerted intervention if we are to shape emerging technology to prevent it determining our future in an inimical way, writes JOHN GREEN

WHILE Marx and Engels predicted that the proletariat would be the gravediggers of capitalism, the left-wing German economist Wolfgang Streek says that today capitalism has become its own gravedigger.

He quotes Gramsci: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”And, boy, are we experiencing the morbid symptoms.The most recent technological changes that are shaking our […]