Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Is automation really kicking goals?

Is automation really kicking goals?

Anyone fearful of robots taking over from humans to the point of causing mass unemployment should watch a game of Robosoccer .

There are quite a few international competitions where robots compete in roles usually filled by humans, such as various Robosoccer leagues, the Robocup Robot Rescue League , a national robotics competition in Malaysia and the World Robot Olympiad.

These are mostly for high school students and university AI (artificial intelligence) students exploring their fields rather than major companies using commercial robots and the focus is on improving robot skills.But they do point to the difficulties any future wave […]

When robots take more and more jobs, how will humans get paid?

When robots take more and more jobs, how will humans get paid?

What if governments just gave money to people?

That’s the big question that Thomas Weisskopf ​, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Michigan, is asking. Since automation is replacing human-powered labor in fields like manufacturing, robust employment may be a thing of the past. A permanent surplus of labor has massive consequences, driving down wages and even contributing to social unrest. According to Weisskopf, such a dramatic problem demands a dramatic solution. An automated welding arm Weisskopf said in using “basic income grants,” an amount of money would be handed out to every citizen “without any conditions whatsoever.” […]

New White House Report Confirms Impact of Machines on Workforce

New White House Report Confirms Impact of Machines on Workforce

New White House Report Confirms Impact of Machines on Workforce

A report recently released by the White House paints a picture of the challenges facing HR in the near future as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to disrupt the workplace.

We talked in November about the current state of AI , and a report from the Obama administration concerning the need for education in STEM fields to develop and apply new AI technologies.In December, 2016, the White House released its follow-up report on the impact of AI on the workforce . With an enormous transition underway, a paradigm shift is already […]

How exactly could governments help workers who lost their jobs to the automation?

How exactly could governments help workers who lost their jobs to the automation?

I see two main lines of questions from your post: 1 Will A.I. and advanced automation just eliminate jobs?

2) What can the government do to help workers displaced by automation?

In regards to #1: A.I. and Automation will definitely eliminate jobs. Like you said, I imagine one day we won’t have semi-truck drivers because of self-driving cars. However there are two opportunities for job creation. The first is the new industries associated with these new technologies. There could be a position created for bug and Q&A testing for the self-driving cars. Highly experienced drivers could have a job where […]

Why a French pol’s tax on robots is a bad idea

Why a French pol's tax on robots is a bad idea

(c) 2017, Bloomberg View.

The ideas of Benoit Hamon, the surprise front-runner in the presidential primaries of the Socialist Party, are far to the left of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and even the U.K. Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn. This, of course, is the era of the expanding Overton Window, with radical ideas bursting into the mainstream. One Hamon proposal in particular, however, should never make it: A tax on robots, based on the premise that their proliferation is bad for human employment.

Hamon’s most discussed proposal is a $805 (750 euro) monthly universal basic income for the French. It doesn’t make […]

Obama: Amazon is ‘killing traditional retail,’ and ‘relentless’ automation is the real threat to jobs

Obama: Amazon is ‘killing traditional retail,’ and ‘relentless’ automation is the real threat to jobs

Former U.S. President Barack Obama. (Facebook.com/WhiteHouse.) New U.S. President Donald Trump is focused on expanding the U.S. economy through tougher trade deals with countries including Mexico and China, and efforts to rebuild the base of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Barack Obama says the Democratic Party should be thinking about the real threat to jobs: technology and automation.

“Automation is relentless and it’s going to accelerate,” Obama said in his final interview as president, a podcast with four of his former aides, published over the weekend. “You saw just what happened to retail stores, sales this past Christmas. Amazon and […]

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

Fears that accelerating automation is going to eat its lion’s share of jobs continue to plague corporate sectors. However, new research from McKinsey Global Institute may talk folks afflicted with automation phobias down from the ledge.

The research group says that although half of today’s work activities could be automated, it may not happen until 2055. Or 2035. Or even 2075. Where the statistic falls along the S curve depends on various factors, such as breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and economic conditions, says Michael Chui, a McKinsey Global Institute partner and an author of the report . Chuiand other researchers […]

The automatic society

It should come as no surprise to learn that we live, and have in a sense always lived, in an “automatic society”. But – and this is a big “but” – digitalisation has not only made it more conspicuous; it has also brought us to the point where this “automatism” confronts human beings with a problem sufficiently intractable to be the likely cause of huge social upheavals in the not-too-distant future.

This much is apparent from the recent work of Bernard Stiegler, the philosopher of technology today. In his book, Automatic Society 1: The Future of Work (Polity Press, 2016), […]

Davos – the rich are worried

Davos - the rich are worried

‘I can’t wait to see how the incoming administration deals with AI," said US Secretary of State John Kerry in a less-than-gracious reference to the fact that the Trump team has not got a clue about the real driving force in the changing world economy. What was striking was that Kerry did not have to clarify his remark for the 2,000 "global leaders" – politicians, bureaucrats, business representatives and public intellectuals – who are in the Swiss alpine town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. They all know what he is talking about. This year’s Davos gathering […]

Davos Highlights AI’s Massive PR Problem

Davos Highlights AI's Massive PR Problem

As business, policy, and technology leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year, the rise of populism with Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US drove discussions about the pros and cons of globalization.

While globalization has improved the living conditions of vast swaths of this planet’s population, it has also led to shifting employment patterns, as jobs leave the US for China and other low-wage countries.

However, the Davos cognoscenti believe wage inequality is only part of the problem. Hand-in-hand with globalization is the topic of automation – seen […]