Tag: employment

Reinventing Rwandan Industries: It’s All about Competitiveness!

Reinventing Rwandan Industries: It’s All about Competitiveness!

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0 if you will, is here. Buzzwords such as block chain, artificial intelligence and robotics are smart technologies changing the face of industrial processes and production globally.

The question is, how are African countries positioning themselves to harness the opportunities and benefits of acquiring and adapting new technologies into their production processes? Kampeta Sayinzoga Rwanda understands the urgency and speed of this technological age, and that the only path to industrial growth is through development and integration of science, technology and innovation into enterprises.

This is evidenced in Rwanda’s Vision 2050 and the 7 Year […]

Protect Long Island’s economy in the age of automation

Protect Long Island’s economy in the age of automation

Change is coming — soon.

But will Long Island be ready?

Over the next decade or two, the region’s employment picture will undergo a significant transformation. Some jobs will disappear. Others will require very different skill sets. And there will be positions and industries that are only toddling now or are yet to be imagined.The Island has seen seismic shifts in its business landscape before. Too often, the region plays catch-up, confronting the fallout of a disappearing sector, like aerospace and defense, as it’s fading, or courting an industry, like biotech, years after it has sunk roots elsewhere.This time, Long Island […]

Robots to make life grim for the working class

Robots to make life grim for the working class

Economists warn that routine tasks like assembly-line manufacturing or traditional office work are increasingly automated.

Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and one of the pioneers of the world wide web, once declared:

The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoys rapid progress, more top researchers are […]

High-Skilled White-Collar Work? Machines Can Do That, Too

High-Skilled White-Collar Work? Machines Can Do That, Too

A Stitch Fix warehouse in San Francisco. The company relies on algorithms to help personalize shipments to customers. One of the best-selling T-shirts for the Indian e-commerce site Myntra is an olive, blue and yellow colorblocked design. It was conceived not by a human but by a computer algorithm — or rather two algorithms.

The first algorithm generated random images that it tried to pass off as clothing. The second had to distinguish between those images and clothes in Myntra’s inventory. Through a long game of one-upmanship, the first algorithm got better at producing images that resembled clothing, and the […]

Robots Portend Grim Future for Working Class: Viewpoint

Robots Portend Grim Future for Working Class: Viewpoint

Email This Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and one of the pioneers of the world wide web, once declared:

“The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.”

Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoys rapid progress, more top researchers are investigating the question of what work will look like in a […]

Tech advances will make life grim for the working class

Tech advances will make life grim for the working class

Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and one of the pioneers of the World Wide Web, once declared: “The spread of computers and the Internet will put jobs in two categories: people who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.”

Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoys rapid progress, more top researchers are investigating the question of what work will look like in a world filled with […]

HSBC previews the banking staff of the future

HSBC previews the banking staff of the future

HSBC has predicted some of the future job titles of its staff as it transforms into a digital-first operation.

With the bank currently recruiting more than 1,000 staff in roles supporting its digital plans, job titles such as “mixed-reality experience designer” and “conversational interface designer” might not be that far away. When businesses, government and academia allay fears of jobs losses as a result of the arrival of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, with claims that they will be replaced by new roles, there is generally scepticism. It is difficult to imagine new jobs being created at the same […]

Robots Are Poised to Make Life Grim for the Working Class

Robots Are Poised to Make Life Grim for the Working Class

Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and one of the pioneers of the world wide web, once declared : The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do. Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoys rapid progress, more top researchers are investigating the question of what work will look like in a world […]

Policy cannot afford to be reactive to the automation revolution

Policy cannot afford to be reactive to the automation revolution

Columnists

If jobs considered safe by today’s standards become obsolete – then what? When technology doesn’t just replace human labour, but human thought too, entire professions stand to be affected. Picture: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg Change is the intrinsic feature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); the scale and pace are extraordinary, and it will be disruptive.

Historically, as technology advanced, labour-intensive sectors in the United States were affected through job losses and sector declines.Despite this uncomfortable scenario, there is a strong argument to be made that South Africa still has time to bootstrap itself and shape its future.Throughout history, countries […]

With artificial intelligence and automation, how many Kiwi jobs are on the line?

With artificial intelligence and automation, how many Kiwi jobs are on the line?

There are widely varying estimates of the job-destroying potential of AI and automation. Illustration / Getty Images The job-destroying potential of artificial intelligence and automation has created much angst around the fast-evolving technology.

Internationally, various studies have predicted that up to half of all existing jobs could be rendered obsolete by algorithms and robots in the coming decades.

But what about the local situation? How will we be affected and what industries and regions are likely to be hit hardest?Much needed research into the issue is starting to emerge, but the widely varying estimates on the job-destroying potential of AI […]