Tag: academic

Survey: Short-term worker optimism belied by longer-term concerns

Survey: Short-term worker optimism belied by longer-term concerns

A new survey of American workers finds signs of hope for the immediate future, but longer-term worries about career advancement.

The big picture: With the pandemic loosening, hiring is expected to pick up dramatically, but the specter of automation and obstacles to reskilling dims the picture for the future.

By the numbers: In a new survey of over 5,000 American adults conducted by the University of Phoenix Career Institute that comes after a wretched year for employment, 78% of respondents say they feel hopeful about the future of their careers, and nearly 80% report they feel highly employable. 7 […]

Coming Out Ahead With Smart Processes

Coming Out Ahead With Smart Processes

During a recent interview with Dr. Tim Rodgers that focused on supply chain management, the conversation also touched on smart factories. We’ve included Tim’s insights on smart processes here.

Dr. Tim Rodgers is a faculty instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Leeds School of Business. Before joining the faculty at Leeds, Dr. Rodgers worked in a variety of senior positions in operations and supply chain management at both multinational corporations and mid-sized companies.

Barry Matties: Do you see automation as the big equalizer here in America? There’s got to be a push for this as we’re seeing smart factories, […]

How We Created A Virtual Workshop To Help A Group Of Brilliant Thinkers Explore ‘Positive’ Futures Around AI

How We Created A Virtual Workshop To Help A Group Of Brilliant Thinkers Explore 'Positive' Futures Around AI

from the it’s-not-all-dystopia dept

Having spent two and a half decades writing about innovation, one of the things that’s most fascinating to me is how little most people can envision how innovation can have a positive effect on our lives. Perhaps it’s a lack of imagination — but, more likely, it’s just human nature. Human psychology is wired for loss aversion , and it’s much easier to understand all the ways in which technology and innovation can backfire to take away things we appreciate. History, however, tends to show that the positives of many innovations outweigh the negatives, but […]

Why We Need To Reassess the Sustainability of Aging Populations

Why We Need To Reassess the Sustainability of Aging Populations

By Prof Kozo Torasan Mayumi

Modern societies have largely been able to grow and develop due to fossil fuels and monetary systems. However, with more aging populations around the world, questions are starting to be asked about the sustainability of this paradigm. Professor Kozo Torasan Mayumi of the Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics in Japan reassesses the double-edged nature of fossil fuels and money.

In modern society, sustainability is a topic often linked to climate change. The well-known damage of global warming has intensified the debate around the use of non-renewable energy sources such as fossil […]

Artificial Intelligence And The End Of Work

Artificial Intelligence And The End Of Work

Dating back to the Industrial Revolution, people have speculated that machines would render human … [+] “When looms weave by themselves, man’s slavery will end.” —Aristotle, 4th century BC

Stanford is hosting an event next month named “Intelligence Augmentation: AI Empowering People to Solve Global Challenges.” This title is telling and typical.

The notion that, at its best, AI will augment rather than replace humans has become a pervasive and influential narrative in the field of artificial intelligence today.It is a reassuring narrative. Unfortunately, it is also deeply misguided. If we are to effectively prepare ourselves for the impact that […]

Robots and employment: Evidence from Japan, 1978-2017

Robots and employment: Evidence from Japan, 1978-2017

Previous studies have reported that the adoption of robotic technologies in industry reduces both employment and wages. This column examines the experience of Japan, which is unique due to early industry penetration and the fact that almost all the robots were domestically produced. Applying a different method from those in previous studies, it shows that the penetration of industrial robots has positive impacts on both employment and wages. This implies the potential for harmonisation of human work with future labour-replacement technology, such as artificial intelligence.

How will automation affect the future of employment? Policymakers, journalists, and academics alike are all […]

BOOKS Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an Age of Stagnation

BOOKS Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an Age of Stagnation

SHAPING THINGS TO COME: A 3-D printer Photo: Bre Pettis/CC “THE robots are coming” is the clarion call from organisations such as the European Central Bank and the World Trade Organisation, as well as in business media generally.

But it also being heeded in the university sector, chiefly in its business schools where the managerial class is incubated.

Hope and fear divide responses to the vista of robots marching over the horizon.Warnings of mass unemployment jostle with tidings of new-job bonanzas in the tech industry.Universal basic income is fantasised for the leisured masses, enjoying their day in the sun on the […]

Smart manufacturing for MSMEs: How small businesses can overcome barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption

Smart manufacturing for MSMEs: How small businesses can overcome barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption

Fourth Industrial Revolution new-age business model, smart corporations and digitally-enabled MSMEs can enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: As the pandemic propels a speedy shift towards automation, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need to be made part of this transition to ensure more inclusive growth and faster poverty alleviation. The Coronavirus outbreak caught digitally unschooled companies on the back foot. In the aftermath of the pandemic, industrial automation has seen an acceleration across sectors as it had a visible impact on operations in factories due to the fear of infections. Conversely, digital natives managed […]

The future of work in 2021: Perspectives from South Africa

The future of work in 2021: Perspectives from South Africa

Digital Economy

Gig Economy

Recession SaaS South Africa Work From Home Workflow Management This article is part of the series — Africa in 2021 . The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the livelihoods of many South Africans and as has happened time and time again in times of economic strain, the poor and unskilled suffer the most. The number of unemployed South Africans rose by 2.2 million to 6.5 million people altogether, between the second and third quarters of 2020. With the economy slipping deeper into recession, 2021 will be another difficult year. […]

“The social movements of our time are explosive”: Aaron Benanav on robots and revolution

“The social movements of our time are explosive”: Aaron Benanav on robots and revolution

On 10 October 1989, a helicopter bound for Atlantic City crashed, killing everyone on board. Among the dead were three top executives of Donald Trump’s casinos in the famous New Jersey coastal resort. “No better human beings ever existed” Trump said in a statement following the tragic incident, evidently already master of semantic evacuation via hyperbole on sombre occasions. Trump also claimed he was supposed to be on the helicopter, but changed his mind at the last minute, which a former Trump Organisation official called a “total lie”.

One of the executives killed was the 33-year-old vice-president of the Trump […]