Tag: employment

CIO Folder: The jobs threat of automation

CIO Folder: The jobs threat of automation

(Image: Stockfresh) Pro

We all know the ramifications of Artificial Intelligence (A) — or think we do. Last year in this column, we posited that AI was still at an automation level, lacking the human factors of intuition and imagination. That is true at the present and for the foreseeable future. AI is advanced automation dealing with online purchases and accounts, financial dealings like credit ratings and other business processes based on IT. The other path of development is autonomous vehicles based on AI, nowadays rapidly progressing on land, sea and air. Drones are the headline temporarily, driven by […]

Globalisation 4.0 and proliferation of AI: Are we ready for this?

Globalisation 4.0 and proliferation of AI: Are we ready for this?

In the last two centuries, globalisation has been interpreted as being about the things that we make and send across borders via air, land and sea.

As the numbers of buyers and suppliers rise, the network becomes more attractive to the new traders. By Soumyatanu Mukherjee

In the last two centuries, globalisation has been interpreted as being about the things that we make and send across borders via air, land and sea. Without reducing the importance of this usual notion of trade, future globalisation is also going to be concerned about the stuff that we do (services), not just the […]

How Globalization and Robotics Speed Up Job Losses

How Globalization and Robotics Speed Up Job Losses

The twin trends of globalization and robotics — or globotics — will usher in a period of unprecedented disruption that could displace workers at the fastest pace in history, argues Richard Baldwin, international economics professor at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, in his new book, The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics and the Future of Work.

Like factory workers who lost their jobs to automation, white-collar and service workers are now in danger of being displaced en masse, said Baldwin, also editor-in-chief of policy website VoxEU.org. He recently joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM to discuss this trend and how […]

PepsiCo Lays Off Employees as They Push Towards Automation

PepsiCo Lays Off Employees as They Push Towards Automation

PepsiCo plans to devote hundreds of millions of dollars to severance pay as they kick off a round of layoffs and initiate their hefty restructuring plan. According to Business Insider , Pepsi filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that they expect to incur $2.5 billion in pretax restructuring costs through 2023. 70% of charges relate to severance and other employee costs and 15% cover factory closings. They predict the restructuring will allow them to save $1 billion annually through 2023 by improving efficiency.

“Our second set of priorities … involves becoming more capable, leaner, more agile and less bureaucratic,” […]

Tongue in Cheek with Automation and Jobs

In her New Yorker article, “ Are Robots Coming for Your Job ,” author Jill Lepore takes on the subject of work-force automation with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

To bolster her case, she quotes Martin Ford, who wrote the 2015 book, “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future and lectured on “Confronting Dystopia: The New Technological Revolution and the Future of Word,” Oddly enough, the two quotes contradict one another. Neither Ms. Lepore nor Mr. Ford seem to recognize this.

Conflicting Quotes on Automation In the first quote, Ms. Lepore opines: “…history shows that […]

AOC Gets the Positives of Robots Right, Until She Goes Wrong

AOC Gets the Positives of Robots Right, Until She Goes Wrong

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-Cortez can’t seem to avoid stirring controversy wherever she goes. Last week, she hit the payload at the South By Southwest Conference. But perhaps the most contentious thing she said there received little attention.

At SXSW, Ocasio-Cortez re-channeled a suggestion by Bill Gates, floating the notion that governments consider taxing robots. The goal is to save jobs – but it will actually discourage job creation.

Ocasio-Cortez surprised many by expressing a more realistic and nuanced view than many of her fellow left-wingers. She said she believes people should, in fact, be “excited about automation.” She specifically argued it could […]

Can Technology Save Us?

Can Technology Save Us?

The economy has been trapped in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back cycle nearly a decade running.

One door opens, two slam shut.

A ray of sun cracks through, the overcast patches the hole.Rapidly advancing technology offers a way out, its drummers claim.They insist automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will soon catapult the economic system into vastly more productive realms.By 2030 alone, they believe it could yield an additional $16 trillion to global GDP.They further claim 40–50% of human occupations will be subject to automation over the next 15–20 years.These are not limited to trucking, taxi driving or manufacturing and construction.To these we […]

Job crises: Unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in Feb 2019, reports CMIE

Job crises: Unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in Feb 2019, reports CMIE

Robots in Jobs The job fair organised by a local college at Chinchwad town of Pune may bring some hopes to hundreds of lined up unemployed youth, but if one takes a close look- the situation seems more abject and gloomy.

India which produces highest number of engineers in the world has been grappling from last few years with high unemployment rate and under-employment. The latest report of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) think tank alludes to the abject scenario in a more empirical way. As per report Unemployment rate rose to 7.2% to in last month as compared […]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t afraid of the rise of robots, but she agrees with Bill Gates that they should be taxed for taking jobs

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't afraid of the rise of robots, but she agrees with Bill Gates that they should be taxed for taking jobs

Unable to play video. HTML5 is not supported! Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has an unusual take on the risk of robots taking over US jobs.

The conventional wisdom is that business owners who replace human workers with robots will accumulate wealth — something a left-leaning politician would usually be opposed to.

Speaking at SXSW, Ocasio-Cortez said people should be "excited" for automation because it would leave people free to be more creative. She also thinks robots, or more precisely robot owners, should be taxed for replacing jobs. Speaking at SXSW over the weekend, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voiced her […]

Whither the humans?

Whither the humans?

The impact of automation on IT work is going to be massive – but not at all negative. Based on what we have seen in other industries, jobs will change, but they will not go away.

Many people are very concerned that automation and AI will do away with jobs. This concern seems to make sense on the face of it; for instance, when is the last time you went into the bank and spoke to a human cashier, instead of just using the ATM out front?

It’s not quite that simple. ATMs automated certain tasks that human cashiers performed, but […]