Author: automata

Mexico taking U.S. factory jobs? Blame robots instead

Nov. 2, 2016 – Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United States. He might want to bash the robots instead.

Despite the Republican presidential nominee’s charge that “we don’t make anything anymore,” manufacturing is still flourishing in America. Problem is, factories don’t 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 1979. Yet American factory production, minus raw materials and some other costs, more than doubled over the same span to $1.91 […]

Mexico stealing factory jobs? Blame automation instead

Mexico stealing factory jobs? Blame automation instead

Employees work on the assembly line at the Volkswagen auto factory in Puebla, Mexico. REUTERS/Imelda Medina WASHINGTON — Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United States.

He might want to bash the robots instead.

Despite the Republican presidential nominee’s charge that “we don’t make anything anymore,” manufacturing is still flourishing in America. Problem is, factories don’t need as many people as they used to because machines now do so much of the work . Play Video America has lost more than seven million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Yet American factory […]

Less Work And More Wealth And Leisure: We Will Have Only Automation To Thank For

Less Work And More Wealth And Leisure: We Will Have Only Automation To Thank For

The higher the productivity is, the higher are the wages. We have to work less in order to stand still, not harder nor longer.

The robots do the heavy work and the algorithms do the brain work: we’ll all go off and do something entirely different – including taking ever more of our greater wealth as leisure.

It was Giles Wilkes , now of the Financial Times , who said that the New Economics Foundation should stand for “Not Economics, Frankly”. And reading today’s Guardian , I could see what he meant.The paper carries an op-ed by Anna Coote , a […]

Mexico taking US factory jobs? Blame robots instead

Mexico taking US factory jobs? Blame robots instead

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump blames Mexico and China for stealing millions of jobs from the United States.

He might want to bash the robots instead.

Despite the Republican presidential nominee’s charge that "we don’t make anything anymore," manufacturing is still flourishing in America. Problem is, factories don’t 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 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, […]

Why import workers when robots will do the job?

Why import workers when robots will do the job?

The growth lobby often argues that Australia needs to run high levels of immigration in order to alleviate so-called skills shortages and to mitigate an ageing population.

This view has been debunked many times on this blog.

First, analysis from the Department of Employment shows that Australia’s skills shortage “remains low by historical standards” .Second, there are big question marks over whether immigration can alleviate skills shortages anyway?That is, if Australia imports a whole bunch of workers to alleviate, say, shortages in construction, these workers will inevitably increase demand in other areas (e.g. for various services), thus creating shortages there. Australia […]

Advance with technology

Advance with technology

0 As technology takes over most of the menial jobs, there is a need for the engineering graduates to be employable and trained in contemporary technologies like data analytics, big data, data science, robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, says Prakash Menon

Automation is reducing the need for people in many jobs. We are facing a future of stagnant income and worsening inequality,” opines Erik Brynjolfsson alarming about how technological advances are likely to replace human element in many jobs. The IT space is increasingly adopting technologies like artificial intelligence, be it IBM’s Watson or Wipro’s Holmes. And if […]

3 Ways to deal with job losses due to automation

3 Ways to deal with job losses due to automation

There has been a lot written about the potential job losses due to the advent of automation. Some of our previous blog posts covered this topic as well. We know that the landscape of professions is going to change : the number of workers required in our factories, warehouses, call centres, retail outlets, cash counters, bill desks, customer service desks, secretary desks is going down; a number of robots, chat bots, RFID tags, smart phones and apps are going to rule the roost. How should one deal with these changes?

Study Mathematics and Technology, right from Pre-school

Most of […]

Will workplace automation leave anybody standing?

Are there limits to workplace automation? Not in the way you might expect

What will be the spark of the Great Robot Rebellion that will end the era of human rule on our planet? Here’s a theory: the robots will become disgruntled with minimum wage. That’s the job level they are poised to flood, taking over more and more tasks in the service industry. And if the robots don’t end up happy about it, well, the prospect doesn’t seem likely to please the current flesh-based workforce either.

Take that most emblematic of minimum wage positions, flipping—and wrapping—burgers. A Silicon Valley […]

Beware Robots Bearing Beer

Beware Robots Bearing Beer

The robots are coming … and they’re bringing the beer.

I’ll admit that I don’t think it’s what Philip K. Dick — renowned science-fiction author whose stories spawned such movies as Blade Runner , Total Recall and Minority Report — and Isaac Asimov — think I, Robot and The Bicentennial Man — had in mind, but I do think we are faced with a technology that we can no longer relegate to the realm of science fiction.

Earlier this week, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and Uber Technologies announced that for the first time ever a self-driving truck completed a commercial delivery. The […]

When Will Robots Take All the Jobs?

When Will Robots Take All the Jobs?

There is a contradiction in economic forecasting today that I’ve come to think of as the "robot paradox.” Some people seem confident that automation will take many workers’ jobs, yet they cannot point to evidence that technology has done anything in the last few years to replace work or add to productivity. Indeed, economic growth has been lackluster for the last few years, productivity growth is mysteriously moribund, and the last two years have been perhaps the best time this century for wage growth. This is not what the end of work looks like.

Since I have written repeatedly that […]