Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Automation Could End Meaningless Jobs—And None Too Soon

Automation Could End Meaningless Jobs—And None Too Soon

What makes your work valuable?

Does it fulfill you? Allow you to connect with or help people? Contribute to a greater good?Or does its value come from your income, which allows you to do other meaningful things?You probably know someone who has a bullshit job. Maybe you have one yourself. Anthropologist David Graeber estimates 20 to 30 percent of the workforce feels their jobs are meaningless, and he’s calling for an end to the era of bullshit jobs.Graeber’s call to overhaul how we think about work introduces a twist to the ongoing […]

Automation Threatens Jobs But Offers Financial Freedom

Automation Threatens Jobs But Offers Financial Freedom

Despite sensational headlines and opportunistic politicking regarding the threat automation poses to socioeconomic stability, with a fully informed, properly educated population, more opportunities than threats lie ahead of us in the near future.

Automation has since the Industrial Revolution replaced human jobs with machines. As technology advances and automation evolves, the socioeconomic landscape of human civilization has evolved with it.

For instance, the initial Industrial Revolution disrupted centuries of multidisciplinary crafts and trades where a cottage industry consisting of individuals or small groups of people carried out the entire process of production. As technology merges information with the physical world, processes […]

The U.S. will be hit worse by job automation than other major economies

"hit worse by job automation"

It’s like this place is backwards land, where all good things are recast as bad.

JOB AUTOMATION IS GOOD. It’s the reason wages have increased 20X since 1800.As we automate more tasks, that will free humans up to do more, leading to even more production. That’s what has happened over the last 200 years. There is nothing to suggest that it will not keep happening. We will never stop wanting newer, better and more advanced products/services, because of the hedonic treadmill. If we want to set up a civilization on Mars, we need to expand production […]

Report: Robots May Soon Take Over 38 Percent of US Jobs

Report: Robots May Soon Take Over 38 Percent of US Jobs

Scene from HBO’s "Westworld" (YouTube) By the early 2030s, 38 percent of jobs in the United States could be at high-risk of being performed through automation rather than by humans, a new report indicates.

According to the analysis performed by accounting and consulting firm PwC, that’s a higher number than in Britain, which could see 30 percent of its jobs become automated; Germany, at 35 percent; and Japan, with 21 percent, reports The Los Angeles Times.

The numbers could still change, as they are based on anticipated technologies in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, the report said.More U.S. […]

Mnuchin: Automation `not even on our radar screen’

Mnuchin: Automation `not even on our radar screen'

Companies are investing heaps of money to develop artificial-intelligence technologies that promise to transform industries as varied as transportation, finance and health care. That all adds up to big economic change, technologists warn.

But for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the artificial intelligence revolution and its impact on the U.S. workforce is "not even on our radar screen." In an interview with Axios, Mnuchin predicted the technology was still 50 to 100 years from displacing human jobs.

"I’m not worried at all," he said. "In fact, I’m optimistic."His remarks contrast with a growing body of research that suggests the economic shift will […]

Tech world debate on robots and jobs heats up

Tech world debate on robots and jobs heats up

Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations (AFP Photo/JUSTIN TALLIS) Although technology has long affected the labor force, recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations, including highly skilled or "knowledge-based" jobs.

Just a few examples: self-driving technology may eliminate the need for taxi, Uber and truck drivers, algorithms are playing a growing role in journalism, robots are informing consumers as mall greeters, and medicine is adapting robotic surgery and artificial intelligence to detect cancer and heart conditions.

Of 700 occupations […]

Will robots replace workers in the near future?

Will robots replace workers in the near future?

Those in wholesale and retail sectors in the UK are at highest risk from breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence

Millions of workers are at high risk of being replaced by robots within 15 years as the automation of routine tasks gathers pace in a new machine age. A report by the consultancy firm PwC found that 30 per cent of jobs in Britain were potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). In some sectors, half the jobs could go. The report predicted that automation would boost productivity and create fresh job opportunities, but it said action was […]

Ryerson students debate $15-minimum wage

Ryerson students debate $15-minimum wage

There was no consensus Thursday when Ryerson students engaged in a fiery debate on the implementation of a $15-per-hour-minimum wage. One side argued an increase would decrease crime and help lift people out of poverty, while the other side argued an increase would lead to more unemployment and crime.

Ontario’s current minimum wage is $11.40 per hour.

Both the “for” and “against” debate teams often took to name-calling and mockery of their opponents.“That’s a nice fact,” debater Will Anderson said at one point in the debate. “Where did you find it, BuzzFeed?”The room erupted in cheers and boos. This continued throughout […]

The Age of Mass Unemployment Is Nigh, and That’s Not the Worst of It

The Age of Mass Unemployment Is Nigh, and That’s Not the Worst of It

HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow By Yuval Noah Harari Published February 21, 2017 Illustrated. 449 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $35. Among the many scandals and comments that derailed Andy Puzder’s campaign to become Labor Secretary was an interview he gave after visiting a partially automated restaurant, where no human interaction is required.

The CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains, told Business Insider in May that he was investing in automation as a way to deal with rising labor costs due to an increase in the minimum wage, before offering a cynical explanation […]

Taxing the robots

Taxing the robots

As advancing technologies like robots threaten displacing jobs for people, the suggestion by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to tax the robots is justifiably triggering a greater debate. Bill Gates’ argument is that the money so generated can finance the Universal Basic Income (UBI) to compensate for the social costs of automation.

Despite its practicalities, the proposal certainly focuses on the social costs of automation. History is replete with examples of such concerns often raised at every stage of technological advancement. Similar apprehensions were aired at the dawn of computers. There were even trade union protests opposing the computerisation.

But, the experience […]