Tag: consumer

Universal Basic Income, Automation and the Future of Jobs

Universal Basic Income, Automation and the Future of Jobs

The nature of work has changed dramatically since the 1950s.

In that glorious post-war period, work was primarily a man’s purview, while women did so-called "invisible" work – taking care of children, maintaining the home and cooking.

It wasn’t unusual for a man to retire 40 years laterfrom the same employer he started with. That employer picked up the worker’s health and life insurance, and some employers even paid school tuition for their workers’ children. There was a sense of continuity. The 1950s Source: Pixabay Welcome to today. It’s rare for a worker to stay at a single job for longer […]

Five Ways To Create And Implement More Ethical AI

Five Ways To Create And Implement More Ethical AI

With more innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), more unexpectedly dangerous uses — like the OpenAI and Amazon cases — are emerging. Each one is a good reminder to consider the ethics and implications surrounding AI and machine learning (ML).

First, it’s important to note that AI does not, on its own, have any intention (good or bad) or the will to misbehave. Even the most sentient-seeming AI lacks intention or motivation; it’s simply interpreting the data it’s given. Ultimately, with any ethical questions that arise from AI, humans are responsible for creating AI within an ethically sound framework.

With that premise […]

Automation to disproportionately affect women in healthcare

Automation to disproportionately affect women in healthcare

An emergency department in 2030 is poised to look much different as automation takes hold, and those changes are likely to disproportionately affect women in healthcare, according to a new report.

Automation will displace as many as 1 in 4 female workers across all sectors, or 160 million women, but that will be offset by an increase in demand and productivity, according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute. That does not account for "frontier" jobs that one could not even imagine today, said Kweilin Ellingrud, a senior partner at McKinsey and co-author of the report.

"It is scary […]

High Oxford researcher talks the chance of automation on employment

If you’ve been following the conversation about technological unemployment and the threat of robots and A.I. stealing jobs, you may have come across the prediction that 47% of current jobs in the U.S. are at risk of automation. That figure comes from a widely cited 2013 paper, titled “The Future of Employment.”

One of that paper’s co-authors, Dr. Carl Benedikt Frey, has now expanded on the thesis in a new book. Frey is co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment at the U.K.’s prestigious Oxford University. His new book, The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in […]

Populism is thriving as losers to the robot revolution demand radical change: Carl Benedikt Frey

Populism is thriving as losers to the robot revolution demand radical change: Carl Benedikt Frey

The mainstream political parties have largely neglected these losers, mostly lowskilled working class. The populists are tapping into their anger, says Frey.

The urban-rural divide that we see today, also in India, is likely to be exacerbated because new jobs mostly emerge in cities with skilled populations, says Frey. The rise of right-wing leaders has been a recurring theme of recent times. Is it linked to the emerging economic situation, especially the growing inequality and the hollowing out of middle-class jobs amid a wave of tech-led disruptions? Carl Benedikt Frey, co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and […]

Job-seekers crushed in a vice

Job-seekers crushed in a vice

Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill this week raising the state’s minimum wage in stages to $15 an hour, making Connecticut the latest state to succumb to the “Fight for $15” movement that’s sweeping the country. The signing took place in a celebratory atmosphere in Hartford, where invited guests included minimum-wage workers who shared their financial hardship stories with the media.

The celebration may be short-lived for some workers.

Supporters of raising the minimum wage insisted it would have no negative effects on employment. Some even argued it would increase employment by increasing demand, because poorer people are more likely […]

The AI gig economy is coming for you

The AI gig economy is coming for you

Mary Gray On Wednesday, the Guardian published an article about the realities of producing Google Assistant. Behind the “magic” of its ability to interpret 26 languages is a huge team of linguists, working as subcontractors, who must tediously label the training data for it to work. They earn low wages and are routinely forced to work unpaid overtime. Their concerns over working conditions have been repeatedly dismissed.

It’s just one story among dozens that have begun to peel back the curtain on how the artificial-intelligence industry operates. Human workers don’t just label the data that makes AI work. Sometimes humans […]

Automation vs jobs – 5 questions everyone should look at and ask!

Automation vs jobs – 5 questions everyone should look at and ask!

Everywhere is the fear of large-scale automation leading to mass unemployment and insecurity. We are at the cusp of major technological change, drastically changing the nature of jobs, leaving masses of people unemployed and worsening economic inequality.

According to a 2013 study by Oxford University researchers, 47 percent of U.S. employees are at risk of automation, while a 2017 McKinsey Global Institute report claims that one-third of U.S. workers will be displaced by imminent automation from their current jobs. Other reports offer tamer prospects, with a recent OCDE report (2018) finding that only 9% of U.S. jobs are “highly automatable.” […]

Will Technology Cause Massive Unemployment? The Lessons of History

Will Technology Cause Massive Unemployment? The Lessons of History

“Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.” — Ben Franklin

I must be some kind of fool because I’ve learned a lot from history and my own experiences on Wall Street over the past 50 years.

For example, I’ve learned to be skeptical of claims that automation and technology will cause massive unemployment. Yes, computers will replace jobs, but they also will create new jobs.I remember reading an article in U.S. News & World Report in the 1960s about how “Automation Will Destroy Jobs.” Yet, new technology ended up creating more new forms of employment […]

The future of work: Being a cashier is Maryland’s most common occupation, but it’s vanishing

The future of work: Being a cashier is Maryland's most common occupation, but it's vanishing

Technological advances could leave Maryland cashier’s jobless. (Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun) Lester Watson began ringing up customers some 40 years ago at a five and dime store before he landed a job at Hutzler’s, the longtime Baltimore department store. He wrote up sales tickets by hand at first, calculating how much, with taxes, a customer owed. Later, he punched numbered keys on a cash register that did the math for him.

Now, the 59-year-old cashier works at Graul’s Market in Ruxton, all but teaching a master class in customer service. As he scans product codes into what’s now […]