Tag: consumer

How AI automation could boost employment: The role of demand

How AI automation could boost employment: The role of demand

Industrial Automation Technologies that automate labour tasks do not necessarily increase unemployment. Despite widespread concerns that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will displace workers en masse , there are periods of history where productivity-enhancing technologies have actually increased employment in the affected industries. This runs counter to the simplistic notion that ‘automation causes job losses’ in the industries experiencing automation.

So, why does automation lead to employment growth in some industries at particular times, while leading to job losses at other times and in other industries?

James Bessen , an Economist from Boston University, argues that it has to do with how […]

Analysis: Pain in Michigan will reverberate from GM’s bigger move on electric

Analysis: Pain in Michigan will reverberate from GM's bigger move on electric

General Motors Co.’s announcement Monday signals a new era in American manufacturing — one that will be painful in the Midwest, and in Southeast Michigan in particular.

The American car is dead and GM, like Ford Motor Co., is betting its future on electric and autonomous vehicles. The consequences will be far-reaching even if the bets work out for the automakers.

On a conference call with reporters Monday, GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker will continue to invest in the trucks and sport utility vehicles and crossovers that dominate the U.S. market but it has "the opportunity to take down […]

Doctor Who: Kerblam!

Doctor Who: Kerblam!

Episode 7 of the first season with Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor is called “Kerblam!” We learn why very early in the episode, as the Doctor receives a teleport delivery via robot. Kerblam, we are told, is the biggest retailer in the galaxy. The Doctor had apparently ordered a fez some time ago and forgotten about it. If that were true and there were no other factors, we would think that the company was very late in delivery. But on the one hand, this might have been the Doctor passing through the earlier time period in which the order […]

AI and Automation Will Replace Most Human Workers Because They Don’t Have to Be Perfect—Just Better Than You

AI and Automation Will Replace Most Human Workers Because They Don't Have to Be Perfect—Just Better Than You

Sawyer the Robot will work for the equivalent of $4 per day. And he’s never in a bad mood. Can you compete with that? Route 9 skims by Boston and cuts clear across Massachusetts to Pittsfield, a city of roughly 50,000, the largest in Berkshire County. Well east of Pittsfield, Route 9 becomes Worcester Road, named for a city that in earlier times was the nation’s largest manufacturer of wire—barbed wire, electrical wire, telephone wire and the wire used in the making of undergarments by the Royal Worcester Corset Co., once the largest employer of women in the United […]

Inside the New Industrial Revolution

Inside the New Industrial Revolution

Each of these earlier revolutions is easy to measure in hindsight—tons of steel produced, number of automobiles on the road, the proportion of homes with a PC. Since we’re just at the start of this latest transformation, we can only try to find clues to the future by looking at the trends of the past decade, with the rise of the smartphone, the Internet of Things and cloud computing. WSJ Tech D.Live

What is tech’s way forward? Follow live updates from the conference as the leaders and luminaries from the worlds of tech, entertainment and media discuss our digital […]

Burgerbot startup Creator hires inventor of Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog

Burgerbot startup Creator hires inventor of Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog

Disney Imagineering animatronics wizard Dr. Martin Buehler is a legend in the robotics world. His work leading development of the galloping Big Dog quadruped at Boston Dynamics both inspired and terrified a new generation of makers. But after playing in the worlds of fantasy and science fiction that consumers can’t buy, Buehler has been poached to work on something much more tangible. In fact, it’s edible. He’s joining burger-making robot startup Creator as VP of engineering.

“It was a great experience working on experimental validation [at Boston Dynamics]” Buehler tells me, “But one of the things I really value at […]

Beware of automation predictions: 3 things we can know for sure

Amid scores of predictions about the impact of automation on jobs and the workforce of the future, Kit Cox shares three things we can be sure of about the future of work during and after the fourth industrial revolution.

The fourth industrial revolution is marching on, bringing new artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology into our businesses and everyday lives.

With great technological change comes vast investment. Enterprise investment in the intelligent automation market (including artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) software) is expected to reach $232 billion by 2025 – an increase of over 1770 percent in […]

The future of work is more human than you think

The future of work is more human than you think

Forget the job coach. If you really want to know how to future-proof your career, your best bet is the World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2018 .

The report confirmed most of the things we already knew: that automation and machine learning are set to create as many jobs as they displace , that the gig economy and flexible contract work will become standard, and that knowledge of data science is going to be a key differentiator in the job market over the next few years.

With more than two years having passed since the first Future of […]

The Catholic view on a contactless world

The Catholic view on a contactless world

With workers being replaced by machines, Fr Stephen Reilly suggests how best to respond

THE UK government is reportedly considering enlisting Britain’s postal workers to check in on lonely elderly people, chat to them and link them in with local community support.

This laudable initiative is a response to government surveys showing that three quarters of GPs see between one and five patients a day who are suffering loneliness.Meanwhile, earlier this year Amazon opened an entirely automated grocery store, Amazon Go, in Seattle. Closer to home, a greater proportion of tills are automatic, and supermarkets are considering scan-as-you-shop, to eliminate […]

Manufacturing jobs are defying expectations

Manufacturing jobs are defying expectations

“NATION LONGS for one more day with dying manufacturing sector.” This headline, published in 2014 by the satirical website the Onion , anticipated both President Donald Trump’s fears and the retorts he gets from his critics. Mr Trump campaigned on a promise to bring back jobs in manufacturing after decades of decline. To those who see the future of the American economy in services, these promises seemed backward. When he was head of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn reportedly asked the president which he would prefer: sitting in nice air-conditioned office, or standing on his feet all day.

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