Tag: academic

Economists grapple with the future of the labour market

Economists grapple with the future of the labour market

WHY is productivity growth low if information technology is advancing rapidly? Prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s, this question has in recent years again become one of the hottest in economics. Its salience has grown as techies have become convinced that machine learning and artificial intelligence will soon put hordes of workers out of work (among tech-moguls, Bill Gates has called for a robot tax to deter automation, and Elon Musk for a universal basic income). A lot of economists think that a surge in productivity that would leave millions on the scrapheap is unlikely soon, if at […]

The Future of Work, a History

The Future of Work, a History

announced, “MARCH OF THE MACHINE MAKES IDLE HANDS,” with the subhead: “Prevalence of Unemployment With Greatly Increased Industrial Output Points to the Influence of Labor-Saving Devices as an Underlying Cause.”

What these alarming words referred to was the abundance of goods being produced in the roaring plants, mills and farm fields of 1920s America. According to a variety of statistics cited and charted by the Times , what Americans could now make was beginning to outstrip what they could consume, to the point of diminishing employment.

“More and more the finger of suspicion points to the machine,” the Times reporter, Evan […]

Rise of the robots: Automation risk to more jobs as minimum wage increases warns IFS

Rise of the robots: Automation risk to more jobs as minimum wage increases warns IFS

Restaurant waiters are actually at lower risk from automation than some other occupations, the IFS said (Source: Getty) Higher minimum wage levels could tempt British employers to automate more jobs, risking a rise in unemployment, respected economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) will today warn.

In research to be published today, the IFS will call for “extremely careful monitoring” of the effects of government increases to the minimum wage as more jobs which could be replaced by machines fall into the law’s scope.

The proportion of over-25 employees on the minimum wage will have tripled between 2015 and 2020 […]

For Artificial Intelligence, the Future Is Now

For Artificial Intelligence, the Future Is Now

Watershed technologies like AlphaGo make it easy to forget that artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just a futuristic dream. It’s already here — and we interact with it every day.

Sensing traffic lights, fraud detection, mobile bank deposits, and, of course, internet search — each of these technologies involves AI of some kind. As we have grown used to AI in these instances, it has become part of the scenery — we see it, but we no longer notice it. Expect that trend to continue: As AI grows increasingly ubiquitous, it’ll become increasingly invisible.

Major advancements in technologies dependent on AI — […]

The Verge 2017 tech report card: Artificial intelligence and robotics

The Verge 2017 tech report card: Artificial intelligence and robotics

Artificial intelligence boomed this year like few other areas in tech, but despite the scientific breakthroughs, glut of funding, and new products rolling out to consumers, the field has problems that can’t be ignored. Some of these, like company-driven hype and sensationalist headlines, need better communication from the media and experts. Others challenges are more nuanced and will take longer to address , such as bias in algorithms and the growing threat of tech firms becoming AI monopolies as they hoover up data and talent.

But first, the good stuff. Artificial intelligence was everywhere in 2017, and although you’re right […]

Future of automation technology

com free digital version print version 8,00 € printed in Germany 16© iStockphoto. Automation And Progress in the 21st Century In 2012, the United States Congress enacted the Move Ahead for Progress in the 21st century A new McKinsey Global Institute report finds realizing automation’s full potential requires people and technology to Harnessing automation for a future that The maritime industry has perhaps been slower than most to embrace container terminal automation, however, confidence inautomation technology is now at its highest What is the scope of PLC and automation training as a future career? What is the best place […]

Fighting the bots for jobs

Fighting the bots for jobs

There are optimists among entrepreneurs and academicians who have rightly pointed out that every technology-driven ‘revolution’ also has generated new jobs. Photo: iStockphoto Two years ago, I saw something that got me really worried about future job losses. I visited a start-up based in the US that demonstrated an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based platform which automated expense processing for a financial services company. The platform not only increased accuracy but also reduced the employed team of several hundreds by 85%! New jobs added to support the new process were a small fraction of the jobs lost.

Watching the platform at work, […]

Paradox of automation

Automation isn’t just for blue-collar workers anymore. In other words, automation is not causing persistent unemployment. We work with renowned distributors world wide and are present on all The automated machine labor revealed by this project is a symptom of the emergent autonomous production it documents, revealing the paradox of automation, labor, and value production: the cultural, historical, and aesthetic ruptures between automation and the (traditional) conceptual mappings of human society. Humans are less involved, but their involvement becomes more critical. The Air France The Paradox of Automation’s “Last Mile” My collaborator, Siddharth Suri, and I have spent nearly […]

Automation and job loss statistics

Automation and job loss statistics

Mar 24, 2017 Up to around 30% of existing UK jobs are susceptible to automation from robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the early 2030s, but in many “The UK employment rate is at its highest level now since comparable records began in 1971, despite all the advances in digital and other labour-saving Dec 2, 2016 The US did indeed lose about 5. Are we facing a future of stagnant income and worsening inequality? Artificial intelligence could dramatically improve the economy and aspects of everyday life, but we need to invent ways to make sure everyone benefits. The topic […]

Robots to take jobs of 800m people by 2030, warns McKinsey report

Robots to take jobs of 800m people by 2030, warns McKinsey report

A humanoid robot named Nina, is displayed at the GIPSA-lab (Grenoble Images Speech Signal and Control), a joint research unit of the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and the University of Grenoble, in Grenoble (Photo: Getty) Around 800m people will lose their jobs to automation by 2030, as businesses seek to harness a cheaper, more efficient artificially intelligent workforce, a report has cautioned.

Between 75m and 375m workers (up to 14 per cent of the global workforce) will be required to switch roles as automation takes over, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has claimed.

Additionally, between 400m and 800m […]