Author: automata

Automation is abolishing jobs

“The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common ‘platform’ is, to our minds, faintly ridiculous,” said one of the judges on the employment tribunal. So the tribunal ruled that Uber’s 30,000 drivers in London were actually employees, and therefore entitled to be paid the minimum wage, to be given sick pay, even to have paid holidays.

Uber promptly appealed the ruling, because it would wreck its business model in the United Kingdom and, if the example spreads, worldwide. But it was only a temporary victory for workers’ rights, because just as […]

with Gywnne Dyer

Half the jobs are going “The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common ‘platform’ is, to our minds, faintly ridiculous,” said one of the judges on the employment tribunal. So the tribunal ruled that Uber’s 30,000 drivers in London were actually employees, and therefore entitled to be paid the minimum wage, to be given sick pay, even to have paid holidays. Uber promptly appealed the ruling, because it would wreck its business model in the United Kingdom and, if the example spreads, worldwide. But it was only a temporary victory […]

US Manufacturing Cuts 9000 Jobs in October

US Manufacturing Cuts 9000 Jobs in October

By Bill Koenig US manufacturers pared 9000 jobs in October, with the machinery sector being the month’s big loser.

Both durable and non-durable goods contributed to the total manufacturing job loss. Makers of durable goods cut 5000 jobs while non-durable goods makers pared 4000, according to a breakdown by industry issued today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Within durable goods, machinery lost 6200 jobs. It was also the worst job performance of any manufacturing category. Other durable goods job losers included transportation equipment (down 2300). That included a loss of 100 jobs for motor vehicles and parts.Job durable goods job […]

Big data is the fourth industrial revolution

Big data is the fourth industrial revolution

Dynistics Managing Director, Robert Dagge shares insights from the FT Future of Manufacturing Summit

Britain’s manufacturing sector has just posted its strongest growth in over two years. Latest figures show that export orders have increased at their fastest rate since January 2014 and factories have also taken on more workers, with employment rising for the second consecutive month. However, the export benefits of a weakened pound will not last forever, and so, as the manufacturing sector continues to evolve, this year’s FT Future of Manufacturing Summit looked at how big data analytics, advanced robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT) […]

WONG: Preparing for the age of automation

WONG: Preparing for the age of automation

OPINION

We need to start preparing for what happens when robots put millions of Americans out of work

Robots carry an enormous influence in industries such as transportation, education, manufacturing, healthcare and even the military. Robots are able to execute tasks judged too “dirty, dangerous and dull” for humans, ranging from nuclear waste cleanup at the Windscale facility in Sellafield to operating car production lines in Slovakia . It is, indeed, difficult to argue against the use of robots in such fields. Robots need not be paid wages, can be programmed to perform certain tasks without training and are […]

Automated Cars Could Threaten Jobs Of Professional Drivers

Automated Cars Could Threaten Jobs Of Professional Drivers

Ronald De Feo has watched robots take factory jobs for years. Now he sees them threatening a new class of worker: People who drive for a living.

"I am in Pittsburgh; it’s a test market for Uber’s autonomous vehicle," says De Feo, CEO of the industrial materials firm Kennametal. "We see all these (automated) Ubers running around the streets of Pittsburgh, a confusing and difficult place to navigate. If they can make that work, what do you think happens to the job of being a taxi driver?"

Computer scientists and economists say the threat isn’t merely theoretical: Automated cars pose an […]

Robot invasion puts factory workers’ jobs to the sword

Robot invasion puts factory workers’ jobs to the sword

Workers exchange spools as a robot picks up thread made from recycled plastic bottles at the Repreve Bottle Processing Center, part of the Unifi textile company in North Carolina. America has lost more than 7 million factory jobs. Chuck Burton / AP For factory workers, there is a stark warning; the robots are here – and they want your job.

While manufacturing is still flourishing in America, factories do not need as many people as they used to because machines now do so much of the work.

America has lost more than 7 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in […]

Robots, not Mexico, taking U.S. factory jobs

Robots, not Mexico, taking U.S. factory jobs

Equipment to sort recycled plastic is shown at the Repreve Bottle Processing Center, part of the Unifi textile company in Reidsville, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016. America has lost more than 7 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Yet American factory production, minus raw materials and some other costs, more than doubled over the same span to $1.91 trillion last year, according to the Commerce Department, which uses 2009 dollars to adjust for inflation. That’s a notch below the record set on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007. And it makes U.S. manufacturers No. […]

How will artificial intelligence impact on our jobs?

How will artificial intelligence impact on our jobs?

In her fourth article in her series on artificial intelligence, Helen Beers looks at how making machines smart might impact on our jobs and and considers whether it will put anyone out of work as a result.

Catch up on Helen’s previous articles on what artificial intelligence is , the current trends and future developments , and what’s enabling and hindering artificial intelligence .

For centuries, people have been afraid that technology will take their jobs. For example, in the 16 th Century, Elizabeth I believed a machine for knitting stockings would bring ruin to her subjects by […]

Android clone v human: will you be able to tell the difference at work?

Android clone v human: will you be able to tell the difference at work?

Robotics scientist Prof Hiroshi Ishiguro with ‘Geminoid’, a prototype of a doppelganger-type android modelled on himself. Photograph: Evertt Kennedy Brown/epa/Corbis Prof Hiroshi Ishiguro – director, Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, and named one of the top 100 living geniuses by Synetics in 2007 – is a very busy man. So busy, he practically needs a clone to keep up with his work schedule, something many of us have wished for in our own lives.

But Ishiguro created one – a near-perfect mechanical likeness of silicon skin, actuators, electronics and his own hair – which he operates remotely via […]