Tag: consumer

Slow-Motion Automation

Slow-Motion Automation

Illustration by Richard Mia Automation — in the form of machine learning, robotics, autonomous vehicles, white-collar bots, exoskeletons, and so on — is changing the nature of work in a wide range of industries. In conducting research for my new book, Silicon Collar: An Optimistic Perspective on Humans, Machines, and Jobs (Deal Architect, 2016), I examined people at work in more than 50 settings: accounting firms and banks, the battlefront and digital agencies, the oil patch and restaurants, R&D labs and shop floors, warehouses and wineries. And it is clear that the old divisions among professions and trades have […]

The Skills Delusion

The Skills Delusion

Adair Turner Everybody agrees that better education and improved skills, for as many people as possible, is crucial to increasing productivity and living standards and to tackling rising inequality. But what if everybody is wrong?

Most economists are certain that human capital is as important to productivity growth as physical capital. And to some degree, that’s obviously true. Modern economies would not be possible without widespread literacy and numeracy: many emerging economies are held back by inadequate skills.

But one striking feature of the modern economy is how few skilled people are needed to drive crucial areas of economic activity. Facebook […]

Elon Musk Thinks Universal Income Is Answer To Automation Taking Human Jobs

but menial jobs that generate less value than a living wage but also pay much less than a living wage so the company generates a net profit while taking advantage of someone in a desperate situation, yes those jobs are becoming widespread. 1. But they’re not becoming widespread. Wages are increasing almost everywhere in the world, and jobs are becoming less menial. Compare the terrible jobs that the vast majority had 100 years ago to the jobs they have today. Or the jobs people have in developing countries to the jobs they have in more advanced economies.

This scaremongering being […]

Big data is the fourth industrial revolution

Big data is the fourth industrial revolution

Dynistics Managing Director, Robert Dagge shares insights from the FT Future of Manufacturing Summit

Britain’s manufacturing sector has just posted its strongest growth in over two years. Latest figures show that export orders have increased at their fastest rate since January 2014 and factories have also taken on more workers, with employment rising for the second consecutive month. However, the export benefits of a weakened pound will not last forever, and so, as the manufacturing sector continues to evolve, this year’s FT Future of Manufacturing Summit looked at how big data analytics, advanced robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT) […]

Robot replaces man: Made in China 2025

Robot replaces man: Made in China 2025

by Boy Lüthje

China has become an important testing ground for an emerging paradigm of capitalist production that has been promoted under catchwords like intelligent manufacturing, digital production or industry 4.0. In 2015, the government presented a masterplan for China’s future manufacturing entitled “Made in China 2025”. Germany’s Industrie 4.0 strategy serves as a prominent point of reference. China’s plan proposes advanced automation, digital systems of factory management and large-scale deployment of robots, along with the development of an indigenous industry for advanced manufacturing equipment. There seem to be golden growth potentials for providers of robots, 3D printing, and […]

Will Logistics Provide a Good Career Path for Young Grads?

In this Presidential election cycle we saw surprising strength from both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the primaries. While the Presidential election is the nastiest in living memory, one thing it has made clear is that there are a lot of Americans who feel they have been left behind. They see an economy where the rich get richer and the middle class is being hollowed out. Both Trump and Sanders pointed to global trade as an important reason for this.

But the bigger reason for the loss of jobs is the growing power of automation. Martin Ford, in Rise […]

The delusion of improved skills

The delusion of improved skills

cartoon Everybody agrees that better education and improved skills, for as many people as possible, is crucial to increasing productivity and living standards and to tackling rising inequality. But what if everybody is wrong?
Most economists are certain that human capital is as important to productivity growth as physical capital. And to some degree, that’s obviously true. Modern economies would not be possible without widespread literacy and numeracy: many emerging economies are held back by inadequate skills.
But one striking feature of the modern economy is how few skilled people are needed to drive crucial areas of economic activity. […]

The Impact of Technology’s Invisible Hand

The Impact of Technology’s Invisible Hand

A worker pushes a cart among shelves lined with goods at an Amazon warehouse in Brieselang, Germany, on September 4, 2014. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) The telltale sign that we are in a new age of automation isn’t in the latest food ordering apps, driverless taxis, or noodle-cooking robots. It’s in stagnant wages.

“We are not going to wake up tomorrow and see that robots have taken all the jobs,” said Ryan Avent, senior editor at The Economist. “We are going to see, instead, stresses on our wages, on our workers, and on our institutions. That’s what the great robot revolution […]

Robotics technology for picking farm produce

Robotics technology for picking farm produce

Farm workers in India. Picture by Vinoth Chandar By Nandini Kranti

The use of robotics technology in industrial systems is quite common, but in the agricultural sector, robotics and automation technology still retains a novelty and fascination, and is still to make a widespread impact on labor-intensive tasks.

The discussion on man versus machine has come too far. Artificial intelligence was the key addition that tipped scales in favor of the latter. Precise and iterative line functions in industrial processes are handled by well-programmed robots.Material handling is seldom an issue in this setup since a great deal of […]

Robots Could Push ‘Fight For 15’ Backers Out Of Work

Robots Could Push 'Fight For 15' Backers Out Of Work

(Chelsea Cody) Someday C-3PO and R2-D2 could be taking your fast-food restaurant order and cooking your burger and fries instead of saving the galaxy in "Star Wars."

Before you say, "I have a bad feeling about this," consider the current business and technology trends.

The political push to raise the minimum wage nationwide to $15 an hour has motivated many restaurants and other businesses with low-skilled workers to think about replacing some human staff with automation and robots.At the same time, such technology is improving by leaps and bounds and costs are coming down. IBD’S TAKE: There always are some good […]