Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Industrial Revolution comparisons aren’t comforting as job cuts loom large

Industrial Revolution comparisons aren’t comforting as job cuts loom large

People at work in a factory, making vices in 1771. Photo: Getty Images/Hulton Archive “Why should it be different this time?” That’s the most common response I hear when I raise concerns about automation and the future of jobs, and it’s a pretty simple rejoinder. The Western world managed the shift out of agricultural jobs into industry, and continued to see economic growth. So will not the jobs being displaced now by automation and artificial intelligence lead to new jobs elsewhere in a broadly similar and beneficial manner? Will not the former truck drivers, displaced by self-driving vehicles, find […]

Automated holidays: how AI is affecting the travel industry

Automated holidays: how AI is affecting the travel industry

First you could book a flight online. Then came online travel agents. And now you might check in for your hotel via mobile, a computer could set the price, while a chatbot answers your queries.

Some travel experts expect the first autonomous cargo flights to start within several years, while big data analysis is on the rise at internet-based firms like Expedia , Lastminute.com and Skyscanner.

“We have to reinvent the place of the man in the system,” says Fabrice Otaño, chief data officer at AccorHotels group.“Artificial intelligence can replace some existing jobs, and managers have to take care of what […]

A Tour Of The Job-Free Future

A Tour Of The Job-Free Future

Machines have replaced human work for as long as there have been machines, but in recent years, jobs that long seemed immune to the rise of the robots — restaurant servers, truck drivers, retail staff — have started looking shaky.

Already, at the experimental edges of the economy, you can have dinner in a server-free dining room, watch a driverless truck haul cargo from A to B, and buy your groceries without a human being having anything to do with it. So BuzzFeed News went out and spent a day experiencing the new, job-free economy. As those technologies go mainstream […]

Invest in These Companies and You Won’t Need a Job

Invest in These Companies and You Won’t Need a Job

This week our focus is on resources . For good reason too. Our colleague, Jason Stevenson is our in-house resource specialist. And this week he released some incredible research about ‘Gigastocks’.

These are a new kind of stock, which he believes have the potential to increase more than 10,000%.

Now we know that might sound too incredible to be true. That was our initial reaction too. But we know the dedication Jason has to his research. And after seeing some of the research he’s put behind this Gigastocks project…well let’s just say we you’d be crazy if you didn’t at least […]

DYER: The grand experiment — universal basic income

DYER: The grand experiment — universal basic income

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. There’s a new idea that might be the solution to runaway populism. Well, it’s not that new, really — it has been kicking around in left-wing circles for a least a quarter-century — but it has suddenly gone mainstream. It’s called Universal Basic Income (UBI), and pilot programs to see if it really works in practice are being launched this year in four different countries.

It’s populism that gave us Brexit in Britain and President Donald Trump in the United States. It could soon give us President […]

Tesla boss Elon Musk backs a ‘basic income’ for everyone

Tesla boss Elon Musk backs a ‘basic income’ for everyone

Tesla boss Elon Musk backs a ‘basic income’ for everyone because robots will take away our jobs leaving us without any ‘meaning’ in our lives

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has doubled down on his support of a universal basic income as a possible solution for unemployment caused by the rise of machines equipped with artificial intelligence taking over the workforce.

A universal basic income would give a standard amount of money to every citizen to cover basic expenses like food and living costs each month.At the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday, Musk told a crowd that universal basic income […]

Driverless trucks: economic tsunami may swallow one of most common US jobs

Driverless trucks: economic tsunami may swallow one of most common US jobs

In April 2016, Uber announced the acquisition of Otto, a San Francisco-based startup that has developed a kit that can turn any big rig into a self-driving truck .

The Otto technology enables complete autonomy on highways: trucks can navigate, stay in their lane, and slow or stop in response to traffic conditions completely without human intervention. Otto’s equipment currently costs about $30,000, but that is certain to fall significantly in the coming years.

Otto is by no means alone. Massive automated vehicles are already commonly used to move materials for the Australian mining industry. Daimler, the German multinational company, has […]

Billionaire entrepreneur says ‘basic income’ will be necessary

Billionaire entrepreneur says ‘basic income’ will be necessary

South African-born billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says universal basic income will be necessary as robots continue to steal jobs world-wide.

While speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai this week, Mr Musk said there will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.

He also noted that humans might struggle to emotionally cope with the influx of job-stealing robots.The universal basic income, which the billionaire is pushing for, would cover expenses such as good and living costs.Mr Musk is sceptical about the inclusion of the UBI though, saying that he’s concerned about people’s sense of […]

The résumé is dead: your next click might determine your next job

The résumé is dead: your next click might determine your next job

The rise of ever more intelligent machines is prompting much speculation about the future of work and a clear separation of views is becoming apparent. Some claim that automation is likely to lead to job losses and that we should prepare for that. Others argue that the new technologies will create as many jobs as they destroy: after all, that is what has happened in the past.

Those – like Donald Trump – who argue they can “bring back the jobs” presume a return, or reinvention, of an almost mythical past where manufacturing dominated the economy and the big firms […]

Automation may lead to huge job loss

Studies about what cataclysmic changes automation will bring about in all fields of human activity in the near future should engage the attention of governments, decision makers, leaders and even ordinary people. The possible scenarios being projected may look like science fiction. But the trends which are seen now and their fast pace indicate that there may be more reality than imagination in the accounts.

Automation in this context means the use of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data manipulation to improve productivity and efficiency. It is set to bring about a revolution in the economy, mainly with […]