Tag: academic

Humanities and the Rise of Robots

Humanities and the Rise of Robots

The threat that recent advances in job automation , machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) represent for human workers is becoming more and more relevant in the economic and social debate.

CEOs like John Cryan of Deutsche Bank clearly state that robots can replace thousands of workers. In two different interviews, Cryan said that “in our banks, we have people behaving like robots doing mechanical things. Tomorrow we’re going to have robots behaving like people” and that “we’re too manual, which can make you error-prone and it makes you inefficient. There’s a lot of machine learning and mechanisation that we […]

Westacott on our sleepy future

Westacott on our sleepy future

Jennifer Westacott: ‘Innovation’ focus has been too narrowly focused on geek culture After 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth, Australian business is asleep at the wheel warns Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia.

Unlike other nations which were prodded into reformation by the global financial crisis, Australia has lolled on its laurels. Ms Westacott said the nation was at a “pivot point” and needed to “shake ourselves out of that slumber and get our act together on tax, get our act together on regulation, on the technology infrastructure that our economy needs, and on making our […]

Why the U.S. Fails at Worker Training

Why the U.S. Fails at Worker Training

Lilli Carré When asked about Donald Trump’s June 2017 executive order calling for the expansion of apprenticeships, Anthony Carnevale says it’s just “good PR.”

Carnevale—the research professor and director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce —believes the high costs of apprenticeships and the U.S.’s dark past with job training will stymie the effort, which aims to help people find jobs in an economy that is rapidly changing primarily because of technological advances. According to Carnevale, apprenticeships—in which aspiring workers learn a trade from a skilled employer in exchange for low wages—can be extremely expensive. The high […]

NAB’s tech-led job cuts shows future challenges of the resume-free robot workforce

NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn announced the big job cuts last week. Jessica Hromas by Ed Husic

It was news that didn’t just send a jolt through hardened market analysts. Last Thursday, NAB told everyone that one in 10 of its employees would be losing their jobs.

Not because of overseas competitors or a slide in its profits, 6000 employees will have their jobs taken by robots.NAB hastened to point out that 2000 new, higher-skilled, digitally centred jobs would be created in the meantime, but many of us will be very interested to see the approach the bank takes to retraining […]

Brave new world

Brave new world

Jason Kaplan Cascades tissue factory, Scappoose

Manufacturers grapple with automation.

In an industrial park on the outskirts of Portland, a small team of engineers are putting the final touches on an elaborate machine they have just built. The machine makes liners for bicycle helmets that are designed to protect against brain injury.Michael Bottlang, director of the Legacy Biomechanics Laboratory in Portland, spent more than 10 years researching and developing the new product, known as WaveCel. He also helped design the new machine that will mass produce the liners. Michael Bottlang Bottlang’s team is still refining and optimizing the machine, […]

Robots will add jobs to the economy: Siemens

Robots will add jobs to the economy: Siemens

London – A new report from Siemens suggests the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ will add billions to economies and that, instead of fearing robots, the drive towards automation will actually generate more jobs.

Discussing the publication of the report, Juergen Maier said that if economies embrace and fund “Industry 4.0”, then the loss thousands of industrial jobs from automation can be turned around into a net gain in employment. This will only happen, the industrialist argues, if governments act rapidly. The report is in the form of a 246-page review, which is made up of a series of recommendations and opinions […]

AP-NORC poll: Most have little fear of robots taking jobs

AP-NORC poll: Most have little fear of robots taking jobs

In this Aug. 3, 2017, photo, Myrtice Harris displays Amazon Prime shipping tape as she packages products at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore. In this Aug. 3, 2017, photo, Myrtice Harris displays Amazon Prime shipping tape as she packages products at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore. While jobs have been lost in brick-and-mortar stores, many more have been gained from e-commerce and warehousing. Amazon accounts for much of the additional employment. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans believe their jobs, and the jobs of those they live with, are safe from automation — at […]

Esquel – From making shirts to making a difference

Esquel – From making shirts to making a difference

An automatic needle inspection machine in operation at Esquel Hong Kong-based textile and apparel giant Esquel Group has made it its mission to weave sustainability into its core values, and across a vertical supply chain that spans every step from cotton farming to retail. Using fewer but more skilled workers, increasing productivity, investing in robotics and automation, micro-financing cotton farmers, and even selecting the whitest cotton fibres to reduce the bleaching process are among the initiatives outlined by managing director Edgar Tung.

"As an industry we have a bad reputation when it comes to sustainability," says Edgar Tung, managing […]

Science must examine the future of work

Science must examine the future of work

Automation will take away jobs, but a bigger question is how many it will generate. In 2014, the Los Angeles Times began beating its rivals to report earthquakes, using an algorithm to convert announcements from the US Geological Survey (USGS) to breaking news within a few minutes. This June, it announced that a magnitude-6.8 quake had shaken Santa Barbara, California. That was certainly news to the distinctly unshaken residents of Santa Barbara; the earthquake the newspaper was reporting on had actually happened in 1925. The paper’s Quakebot had misinterpreted an update to the USGS seismic database and published its […]

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a ‘robot tax’

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a 'robot tax'

If a worker loses a job to a robot, who pays the city and state tax revenue that the formerly employed worker paid in? Right now, nobody does.

That’s where the idea of a "robot tax" comes in.

In an interview with Quartz earlier this year , Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates said he believes governments should tax companies’ use of robots. It’s an idea one San Francisco politician is now trying to advance to the next level."I think automation is a good thing," San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim told CNBC’s "On the Money" in an […]