Tag: academic

Robots ‘could make 400,000 West Yorkshire jobs obsolete in 20 years’, says report

Robots 'could make 400,000 West Yorkshire jobs obsolete in 20 years', says report

The study suggested the changes will not necessarily mean a loss of jobs overall, but warned inequality could get worse. Robots and automated technology threaten to make more than a third of jobs in West Yorkshire obsolete within 20 years, a report has warned.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority study said more than 400,000 jobs in the region are at risk, with low-skilled and manual work potentially worst affected by automation.

The study suggested the changes will not necessarily mean a loss of jobs overall, but warned inequality could get worse as “lower paid workers (are) likely to be […]

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Can you imagine travelling to work in a robotic “Jonnycab” like the one predicted in the cult Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall? The image from 1990 is based on science fiction, but Mercedes Benz does have a semi-autonomous Driver Pilot system that it aims to install in the next five years and Uber is also waging on a self-driving future. Its partnership with Volvo has been seen as a boost to its ambitions to replace a fleet of self-employed drivers with autonomous vehicles.

Jonnycab might belong to futurology but if MIT academics Erik Brynjolfson and Andrew McAfee are right, we […]

Hiring managers say AI will change how we work within five years

Hiring managers say AI will change how we work within five years

During the 1940s, AT&T employed more than 350,000 telephone switchboard operators — a job that’s nearly vanished. But, today, some estimates put the number of mobile app developers at 12 million individuals worldwide. Just as technologies and communications change, jobs likewise evolve. The workforce as we know it is in the throes of a revolution.

As new technologies emerge in what some have dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution , innovative companies have already begun to adapt, prompting reevaluations of workforce development strategies. Artificial intelligence, in particular, brings new possibilities — like increased productivity and innovation. It also has sweeping implications […]

Thanks to AI, the need for humans to work for survival could soon be at an end

Thanks to AI, the need for humans to work for survival could soon be at an end

Should we fear the rise of the robots? Earlier this month, a report warned that over 6 million workers in the UK fear losing their jobs as a result of developments in automation. The Bank of England has gone further: its own study in 2015 estimated that 15 million British jobs could be at risk; more recently Mark Carney, the bank’s governor, suggested job losses caused by the technological revolution could re-create conditions seen after the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The response to these warnings has been a flurry of comments in national newspapers, coloured by […]

After Recessions, Why Do Some Jobs Disappear Forever?

After Recessions, Why Do Some Jobs Disappear Forever?

During the financial crisis of 2008, employment fell dramatically, as was expected. But in the economic recovery that followed, only certain jobs bounced back. A research paper by Wharton finance professor Nikolai Roussanov looks at this phenomenon and correlates it with technological adoption by companies during a down economy.

The paper, whose co-authors are Cornell University professor Mathieu Taschereau-Dumouchel and Wharton doctoral student Alex Kopytov, is titled “ Short-Run Pain, Long-Run Gain? Recessions and Technological Transformation .” Roussanov recently sat down with Knowledge@Wharton to explain the scope and goal of the research as well as what they found. […]

Will AI and Automation Take Your Job?

Will AI and Automation Take Your Job?

Is technology pushing us towards a jobless future? What once was the conjecture of futurologists, academics and intelligentsia, has now become a widespread concern for the man on the street. A 2017 report compiled by McKinsey predicts that as many as 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation by 2030.

Technology and its impact on the future or work is currently one of the most deliberated topics across the globe in business forums and leadership consortiums. At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, global leaders echoed concerns over the disruptive nature of technological advancements becoming perhaps […]

Why Women Should be Excited About AI

Why Women Should be Excited About AI

Prevail against bias Depositphotos enhanced by CogWorld As artificial intelligence is entering all spheres of our lives, a lot of concern is arising about the possible white bias and patriarchy of the impending AI world.

Moreover, research shows women are much more skeptical of and averse to innovation in comparison to men who embrace and triumph it. This fear of technological innovation has to do with the fact that society often views the role of women as replaceable by AI, which is visible in the abundance of women robots and female personal assistants, such as Alexa and Cortana.

If we’re coming […]

Robot Bartenders and the Future of Work

Robot Bartenders and the Future of Work

Higher ed seems to be a hotbed of worry about a robot-driven jobless future. This is at least true of the edtech people with which I hang around.

Go to any conference that is supposed to be about online learning and educational technology, and you will hear a good deal of conversation about robots.

Worries will be expressed about driverless cars taking all the driving jobs. A recent MIT Technology Review article pointed out that 3.8 million Americans make their living driving, including 1.7 million who drive trucks. Goldman Sachs estimates that self-driving vehicles will eliminate 300,000 jobs a year, once […]

Why automation is more than just a job killer

A new study by PwC suggests that AI and related technologies could result in minimal net job losses. But isn’t technology supposed to eliminate the need for human labour? How can automation occur and yet not make a dent in overall job numbers?

The answer is that automation comes in many guises. While the media is fixated on machines that substitute for humans, less attention is paid to those that augment labour. And seldom is it recognised that machines might in effect create tasks, doing work that was never done by a human previously.

At least four types of automation can […]

Think SA’s unemployment is bad now? Automation could kill another 4.5m jobs – expert

Think SA’s unemployment is bad now? Automation could kill another 4.5m jobs – expert

JOHANNESBURG — This article takes a rather realistic (and possibly even bleak) look at how 4IR tech, such as automation, could eliminate millions of jobs in South Africa. While I have no doubt that automation will create new jobs that we haven’t even heard of yet, what’s clear is that highly skilled workers will be able to adapt while low-skilled workers may find themselves unemployed in huge numbers. This will hit South Africa hard as our government has, quite frankly, failed in sufficiently skilling up the majority of the country’s population for the 21st Century. This article should serve […]