Author: automata

Greens would set up Minister for Manufacturing within MBIE, if in Government

Greens would set up Minister for Manufacturing within MBIE, if in Government

Green Party co-leader James Shaw says National has dropped the ball on fighting for the interests of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector. The Greens will establish a Minister for Manufacturing if in Government, that would sit inside Cabinet and create "well-paid, clean-tech jobs".

Co-leader James Shaw made the policy announcement at a Christchurch-based knitting company on Thursday.

New working groups within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) would be created, rather than a creating a new Government department.Costs of reassigning resources in MBIE would be met within existing baselines, Shaw said. READ MORE: * A Labour-Green alliance met with […]

This expert thinks robots aren’t going to destroy many jobs. And that’s a problem.

This expert thinks robots aren't going to destroy many jobs. And that's a problem.

Javier Zarracina

If you follow news out of Silicon Valley, it’s easy to get the impression that we’re living through an era of unprecedented technological change. The modern smartphone is less than a decade old, yet it has already become ubiquitous in American society and allowed Apple and Google to become two of the most valuable companies in the world. And companies like Uber and Airbnb are bringing the internet revolution to industries as diverse as taxicabs and hotels.

Yet it’s hard to find evidence of rapid progress in the nation’s economic statistics. To the contrary, after the productivity of American […]

New Zealanders aren’t worried their job will be automated

New Zealanders aren’t worried their job will be automated

There have been a number of dire warnings in the past year about the number of jobs that are set to be automated in the next few decades. Some go as far as to suggest that 1 in 3 jobs will be done by computers within the next 20 years.

Suffice to say, these kind of proclamations seldom examine the number of new jobs that we might create and so inevitably take on a rather gloomy hue. A recent study from Massey University’s School of Management explored just how worried workers in New Zealand were of such automated unemployment. Are […]

New report says physical and ‘predictable’ jobs are at risk of automation; AI experts respond

New report says physical and 'predictable' jobs are at risk of automation; AI experts respond

Image: iStockphoto.com/ndoeljindoel With robots helping in hospitals, schools, restaurants, and even on cruise ships, it seems that there are few industries that won’t feel the impact of automation. But whether human jobs will be replaced by machines is still a complex question, and it is still too early to know how human jobs will be impacted in the age of AI.

A new report released by McKinsey & Co. on Friday attempts to shed more light on the issue. The key takeaway? “Predictable” jobs are most at risk of becoming automated.

The report , which draws from data from the […]

New report says physical and ‘predictable’ jobs are at risk of automation; AI experts respond

New report says physical and 'predictable' jobs are at risk of automation; AI experts respond

Image: iStockphoto.com/ndoeljindoel With robots helping in hospitals, schools, restaurants, and even on cruise ships, it seems that there are few industries that won’t feel the impact of automation. But whether human jobs will be replaced by machines is still a complex question, and it is still too early to know how human jobs will be impacted in the age of AI.

A new report released by McKinsey & Co. on Friday attempts to shed more light on the issue. The key takeaway? "Predictable" jobs are most at risk of becoming automated.

The report , which draws from data from the US […]

The Workplace of the Future

The Workplace of the Future

The Barbarian Group’s ‘Superdesk’ | Source: Courtesy There are few sectors of the economy that offer as wide and interesting a range of career opportunities as fashion. For more careers content or to browse current job opportunities in fashion, visit BoF Careers .

LONDON, United Kingdom — The way we work is changing. Many of us have experienced working in big offices, in cubicles, under fluorescent lighting and at the same desk and computer every day. However, several key trends are leading up to a shift in the way people communicate, collaborate and work.

Economic shifts are redistributing power, […]

Automation can create jobs if you are willing to learn

Automation can create jobs if you are willing to learn

Teachers will become bots, BPO workers will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence software, cars will be driverless. The recent reports of robots taking over jobs are alarming for many employees and job-seekers . What will happen to the teeming graduates coming out of our colleges? According to HfS Research, 640,000 IT workers in India engaged in low-level tasks won’t be replaced by machines.

But 10 categories of professionals including cashiers, drivers, factory workers and journalists will be wiped out. Teachers will become bots, BPO workers will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence software, cars will be driverless.

Would you need a human […]

Robots in the Workforce: Automation Is a New Era for Engineers

Robots in the Workforce: Automation Is a New Era for Engineers

Welcome, Future Engineer. Currently, creative engineers are forced to build geometry in CAD systems to assess the viability of design ideas. In the future, their time will be better spent analyzing and constructing the problem statement, so computers can generate new geometric options and help engineers iterate faster. As a result, the scope of problems will increase, creating new challenges and opportunities.

An example is SpaceX, which successfully landed two rockets on a boat this year (after five failed attempts). What if, at the beginning of the process, the engineers had fed project parameters into a generative-design tool ? And […]

42 percent of working Canadians at high risk of being replaced by automation, says study

42 percent of working Canadians at high risk of being replaced by automation, says study

If you are on the verge of graduating from high school and wrestling with what to do with the rest of your life, or re-training yourself for another job mid-career, a study by Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship located in Toronto, Canada and housed within Ryerson University may have an impact.

Their recent study , The Talented Mr. Robot: The impact of automation on Canada’s workforce says a staggering 42 percent of the Canadian workforce is at high risk of being affected by automation over the next 10 to 20 years, with over a 70 percent probability of this […]

How robots paved the way for Donald Trump

How robots paved the way for Donald Trump

View photosMore See any humans? A Ford assembly plant in Missouri. Think we don’t make anything in America any more? Think again.

US manufacturing output is close to a record high, even when adjusted for inflation. The reason that sounds surprising is manufacturing jobs have been disappearing since the late 1980s, and now that number is just 12.3 million. Since 1989, manufacturing output has surged 69% while employment has fallen by 32%.

Manufacturers are doing more with less because of technology: computerized machines, streamlined processes, and on just about any factory floor that’s been built or revamped during the last 20 […]