Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

No, a robot isn’t going to take your job

No, a robot isn’t going to take your job

Fear not. AI anxiety is not new. This is the third in a series of articles exploring a delivery bot pilot program that was rolled out in D.C. last month.

It has been a tumultuous and passionate few weeks here in the nation’s capital, so you could be forgiven if you didn’t notice the other day that an autonomous food delivery bot made its first trial run in the District.

Quiet, white, unobtrusive and below the line of sight, it whirred along at about four miles per hour, using nine cameras and a GPS to navigate around obstacles. Most remarkably, […]

Will Robots Really Take Our Jobs? The Impact of Industry 4.0

Will Robots Really Take Our Jobs? The Impact of Industry 4.0

Steve Jurvetson via Wikimedia Commons

For those who work in manufacturing, Industry 4.0 is a big turning point. The current trend of automation and data exchange has brought and probably will bring many further changes to manufacturing.

Working with a robot might become an everyday situation for those employed in the industry. With the improvement of technology, more and more jobs can be fulfilled by artificial intelligence. Not only is it possible to exchange certain human employees, but it also pays off. Certain factory robots from Rethink Robotics cost for as little as $25,000, which would be like paying […]

More on automation and employment

More on automation and employment

Prompted by this exchange where /u/chaosmosis and /u/louisanderson make their concerns about employment and automation known.

As /u/besttrousers suggests we’ll use the Cobb Douglas production function and a logarithmic utility function. We’ll have two products (Apples and Oranges) along with two producers (Humans and Robots). The production functions for humans producing apples will look like this:

[; Y_{HA}:= A_{HA} L_{HA}^{beta_{HA}} K_{HA}^{1-beta_{HA}} ;] Along with a utility function of: [; U(L,K)=U_{A} log(Y_{HA}+Y_{RA})+U_{O} log(Y_{HO}+Y_{RO}) ;] Now, before we start doing any math lets address the concerns the commentators have with the model. There can be so many robots I think you might […]

Actors, teachers, therapists – think your job is safe from robots? Think again

Actors, teachers, therapists – think your job is safe from robots? Think again

In the battle for the 21st century workplace, computers are winning. And the odds of us puny humans making a comeback are not very good.

A January 2017 report from the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that roughly half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055, give or take 20 years. (McKinsey helpfully offers a search portal to find out how likely you’ll be given the boot by a bot.)

Bottom line is robots want our jobs. And no one is going to build a wall around them or tariff them out of existence.In a way this is nothing new. […]

Intel is hiring American workers to make high-tech chips that could displace American workers

Intel is hiring American workers to make high-tech chips that could displace American workers

Intel is building a $7 billion manufacturing plant in Arizona that will create “3,000 high-paying, high-wage, high-tech jobs,” CEO Brian Krzanich announced after a meeting with US president Donald Trump on Tuesday. “The people of Arizona will be very happy,” Trump said. “It’s a lot of jobs.”

Trump made “bringing back jobs” a central theme in his campaign, and he has continued to emphasize it in the early days of his presidency. Last month, for instance, the president that he would use taxes and other penalties to punish American companies who move manufacturing jobs abroad.

In that context, there’s something a […]

Economic advisory council delivers Bill Morneau an odd report: Walkom

Hamilton Spectator

The latest report from Ottawa’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth is an odd document. It foresees a world in which almost half of Canadians will have lost their jobs to automation. Yet it spends much effort trying to figure out how to encourage more workers to compete for this diminishing number of jobs.

Like the council’s first report in October, this one walks a fine line between market economics and activist government.It wants private capitalists to lead the way but it also wants government to both guide and backstop their efforts.In that sense it hearkens back to the Asian […]

Science Museum In London Features 500 Year Old Robots And Raise Questions On Future Of Employment

Science Museum In London Features 500 Year Old Robots And Raise Questions On Future Of Employment

Rob’s Open Source Android (ROSA), a French-made robot, is displayed during the press preview for the ‘Robots’ exhibition at the Science Museum on February 7, 2017 in London, England. The exhibition showcases robot history going back 500 years with over 100 robots including the largest collection of humanoid robots ever displayed.
(Photo : Carl Court/Getty Images) When thinking of robots, people now-a-days would think of android-like machines running around and doing manual labor. Today, that thought is possible but how did robots evolve since then? The Science Museum in London features the first robot to the futuristic and fictional ones.

For […]

Your role in a brave new world

Your role in a brave new world

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us but that doesn’t mean jobs are going to dry up, in fact there may be more than ever Experts say though some traditional jobs may disappear, others will be created by new technology. The march of technology will bring more jobs, not fewer, says Sharon Davies, managing director of recruitment solutions company Talent Propeller.

Davies is one of a number of commentators who see a positive future for work in New Zealand, rather than doom and gloom.

Whenever technology is introduced, society benefits and the number of available jobs tends to increase rather than […]

Hoteliers would like to employ more robots

Hoteliers would like to employ more robots

IN A recent blog post , Gulliver expressed his exasperation at having to interact with other humans when he stayed at hotels. After all, in the age of mobile check-in and automated bartenders, it must be possible to swerve most of these pointless encounters (and avoid having to hand over tips for the most mundane services, such as pouring a beer or being shown to your room).

One solution that didn’t occur to him was robot butlers. The M Social Singapore hotel is introducing a droid that can deliver room service to guests. It navigates using 3D cameras and can […]

Robots, Yes Robots, Could Be Trump’s Greatest Threat

Robots, Yes Robots, Could Be Trump’s Greatest Threat

(image used under Creative Commons license via tecnalia) The rise of automation is destined to replace some worker employment, and it could increasingly cause friction with efforts to create new jobs, a hallmark of the Donald Trump administration.

Many studies have forecast a day when repetitive and labor-intensive jobs will be recast by automation, though the jury is still out about whether the humans now holding those jobs will be elevated to more meaningful positions that utilize automation or will be replaced outright.

One particular technology, self-driving cars, is on pace to emerge en masse in 2021, right around the next […]