Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Robots, automation and AI, oh my!

Robots, automation and AI, oh my!

Last month, participants in Columbus VC firm Drive Capital’s second robotics and automation summit spent the day exploring the future.

Whether it was robots that deliver packages, using ant colonies to inspire a redesign of supply chain, or software that simplifies industrial robot programming, those attending Devol’s Dance — including startup founders, executives, investors and thought leaders — shared ideas about the world we’re shaping.

Drive Capital Partner Chris Olsen says he remembers the days of technology investing, where as part of due diligence, you looked in server rooms to see how they racked and stacked their hardware.“Then you could get […]

These American workers are the most afraid of A.I. taking their jobs

These American workers are the most afraid of A.I. taking their jobs

The Terminator movie franchise is back, and the idea that robots and artificial intelligence are coming for us — specifically, our jobs — is a big part of the present. But the majority of the working population remains unafraid of a T-800 stealing their employment.

Only a little over one-quarter (27%) of all workers say they are worried that the job they have now will be eliminated within the next five years as a result of new technology, robots or artificial intelligence, according to the quarterly CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness survey.

Nevertheless, the survey results show it may be only a matter […]

How automation and other forms of IT affect the middle class: Assessing the estimates

How automation and other forms of IT affect the middle class: Assessing the estimates

Editor’s Note:

This paper was prepared for the inaugural conference on “Automation and the Middle Class” for the Brookings Institution, Future of the Middle Class Initiative.

In the last four decades, the US and other industrialized economies have experienced a pronounced drop in the fraction of the population working in middle-waged jobs. Since employment growth has been weighted toward the upper- and lower-tails of the wage distribution, this phenomenon has become known as job polarization. An important literature demonstrates that this change has meant the loss of job opportunities in certain types of occupations—those that are routine in nature, […]

Trade department lays out plans for onset of advanced manufacturing

assembly line GOVERNMENT agencies are proposing programs to address job losses caused by the possible contraction of the manufacturing sector due to increased automation, officials said at an economic forum.

Representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) disclosed the plans at a Philippine Economic Society forum Thursday.

“The entry of industrial technologies will add another layer of complexity to the already challenging task of developing globally competitive industries,” DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba said in her presentation.“Adoption of new technologies would increase productivity but may replace workers whose tasks are to […]

Are employees sabotaging workplace bots?

Are employees sabotaging workplace bots?

Healthcare employees are reportedly retaliating against the threat of automation Can humans and robots co-exist peacefully in the workplace?

Evangelists of the future of work may proclaim this utopian vision, but workers in the UK are finding a way to push back against the potential of a robotic takeover.

Employees in the British healthcare sector reportedly “sabotage” robotic co-workers in retaliation against the threat of automation , researchers from De Montfort University in Leicester revealed.The healthcare industry relies on specialized machines that perform a range of functions – from nanosurgery to rehabilitation.The researchers, however, said humans were averse toward their machine […]

Want a robot-proof job? Try being a plumber

Want a robot-proof job? Try being a plumber

Andrew Yang is a candidate for president, but it seems a little unlikely that he will make it to the top. No matter how far he gets, he has an interesting message regarding the possible effects of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs in the future.

The topic of automation and the availability of work for regular, non-tech folks is certainly subject to debate. Some folks think the shrinking of some jobs is due to trade policies as well as the employment of “robots” to do jobs that people used to do. This topic is way over my head, […]

The Jobs Robots Can’t Do (At Least Not Yet)

The Jobs Robots Can’t Do (At Least Not Yet)

In the Age of AI (FRONTLINE)

In the age of artificial intelligence, predicting which jobs will fall to automation is as much about what machines can do as it is about what they can’t.

More than half of all jobs in America — both blue and white-collar — are resistant to automation, according to an acclaimed study published in 2013 by two Oxford University researchers.Co-author Carl Benedikt Frey, who directs Oxford’s Technology and Employment program, broke down three areas where human intelligence still beats artificial intelligence: perception and manipulation, social intelligence; and creativity. Each type has what Frey calls a “bottleneck,” […]

Three ways to solve India’s jobs problem

Three ways to solve India’s jobs problem

Students at a skill development centre run by Maruti Suzuki on the ITI-Meerut campus. Although the data is murky and it is politically difficult to admit, India has a massive and growing challenge educating and creating decent work for her youth. Some 374 million Indians are between 10-24 years old and they constitute a fifth of the world’s young people. They represent extraordinary talent and ambition but face equally extraordinary challenges.

The facts are grim. Half of them drop out before Class X. Nearly a million turn 18 years old every month and start looking for employment. However, jobs are […]

Women’s jobs under threat from AI

Women’s jobs under threat from AI

This file photo shows female workers on a production line at the Garment 10 Company on the outskirts of Hanoi. (AFP Photo) Technological advancements and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionising manufacturing for industries around the world. The International Federation of Robotics estimates that by 2020, the worldwide stock of operational industrial robots would have increased to 3,053,000 units, with the capability to help produce cars, electronics and new machinery.

Partial automation is already making meaningful changes in how people work; increasing efficiency and requiring less time to complete a task.

However, the scale and pace of AI in disrupting jobs is […]

Automation brings both prospects and risks to RMG industry in BD

Staff Correspondent: As many as 120 machines are knitting sweaters round the clock in a huge air-conditioned room with a handful of workers inputting instructions and designs into computers.
Thanks to automation, the apparel plant of Softex Sweater Industries at Savar on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka reduced the number of workers to 22 from 700 in the knitting unit.
The plant needs fewer workers as they just sort the items manufactured by the machines, according to the company’s Head of Operations Tahzeeb Ul Gani Shahjee.
“You only need to feed designs and measurements into the machines. […]