Tag: employment

Why we should stop panicking about robots stealing our jobs

Why we should stop panicking about robots stealing our jobs

Ideology is what determines how you think when you don’t know you’re thinking. Neoliberalism is a prime example. Less well-known but equally insidious is technological determinism , which is a theory about how technology affects development. It comes in two flavours. One says that there is an inexorable internal logic in how technologies evolve. So, for example, when we got to the point where massive processing power and large quantities of data became easily available, machine-learning was an inevitable next step.

The second flavour of determinism – the most influential one – takes the form of an unshakable conviction that […]

Does everyone really need a job? Why we should question full employment

Does everyone really need a job? Why we should question full employment

Lots of work needs to be done, but do we all need to work 40 hour weeks? (Photo by Mike Kononov and Solomon Hsu on Unsplash)

The idea that diligence is a virtue and that a person who doesn’t work full time is morally suspect is a common one. Phrases like “idle hands are the tools of the devil” suggest to us that work is inherently good and that if we don’t work full-time then we have somehow failed. For many people, unemployment is as much something to be ashamed of as it is an economic problem. It is no […]

Elon Musk admits that Tesla relied on ‘excessive automation,’ says ‘humans are underrated’

Elon Musk admits that Tesla relied on ‘excessive automation,’ says ‘humans are underrated’

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk meets the press at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Tesla relied too much on robots, and not enough on humans.

That’s what Elon Musk admitted on Friday, tweeting that “excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake.” Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated. Musk was responding to a tweet with a linked story about Tesla’s production delays for its highly-anticipated Model 3 sedan.

There’s no question that automation, robotics and AI will transform society in the years to come — particularly when it comes […]

Can a Mad Max dystopia be stopped? Ex-RTP entrepreneur Wadhwa to find out at Harvard

Can a Mad Max dystopia be stopped? Ex-RTP entrepreneur Wadhwa to find out at Harvard

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Vivek Wadhwa is taking his globe-trotting research into technology’s impact on our present and future with a new appointment at Harvard Law School. Vivek Wadhwa Wadhwa has been named a Distinguished Fellow with the Labor and Worklife program at Harvard Law School “to help with what I consider to be the most important research project of our times: to understand the impact of technology on jobs and develop policies to mitigate the dangers.”

Reached by WRAL TechWire, Wadhwa says the project is “something that [economist] Richard Freeman and I have long been discussing. There is anecdotal […]

Can a Mad Max dystopia be stopped? Ex-RTP entrepreneur Wadhwa to find out at Harvard

Can a Mad Max dystopia be stopped? Ex-RTP entrepreneur Wadhwa to find out at Harvard

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Vivek Wadhwa is taking his globe-trotting research into technology’s impact on our present and future with a new appointment at Harvard Law School. Vivek Wadhwa Wadhwa has been named a Distinguished Fellow with the Labor and Worklife program at Harvard Law School “to help with what I consider to be the most important research project of our times: to understand the impact of technology on jobs and develop policies to mitigate the dangers.”

Reached by WRAL TechWire, Wadhwa says the project is “something that [economist] Richard Freeman and I have long been discussing. There is anecdotal […]

Would slashing the trade deficit with China create jobs in the U.S.?

Part three of a three-part interview with Professor Masao Suzuki

This is part three of a three-part interview. Click for part one and part two of this interview.

Fight Back!: President Trump seems intent on risking on a trade war with China in order to narrow the U.S. trade deficit. Trump thinks the U.S. trade deficit means that the U.S. is a loser, and by bringing down the trade deficit the U.S. economy will grow by the same amount, creating jobs and income here in the U.S. What do you think? Masao Suzuki: I think that this is […]

Are robots at the gate?

Are robots at the gate?

A new report by Barclays Bank indicates tech and increased automation will create rather than reduce employment opportunities.

The Robots at the gate: Humans and technology at work report is the latest in its Impact Series, and it looks at how tech is transforming the working landscape and the impact it will have over the next few decades. “Technological acceleration has sparked both apprehension and intrigue in terms of its impact on the future of work. Much of the impact of technology in an economy depends not just on what is technically feasible, but also on how human attitudes evolve. […]

A Look Into The Future Of Finance

A Look Into The Future Of Finance

The financial sector has seen a whirlwind of changes over the past few decades. The financial crisis of 2008 led to major restructuring, massive new regulation and a heavy focus on compliance in finance. Today there is a different trend in finance. It involves technology, and it has led to a new term called fintech or financial technology to be more precise.

Nguyen Trieu is a finance professor and businessman who deals with finance and technology. He predicts that the next decade in finance will be focused on the merging of finance and technology in what he coins fintech. Nguyen […]

Asia’s Workers Will Benefit from New Technologies, but Government Action is also Needed

Asia’s Workers Will Benefit from New Technologies, but Government Action is also Needed

Technological advances have transformed the two billion worker Asian labor market, helping create 30 million jobs annually in industry and services over the last 25 years, drive increases in productivity and wages, and reduce poverty, says a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

New research on how technology affects jobs, the subject of the special theme chapter in the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2018 report, points out that while some of the region’s jobs will be eliminated through automation, countervailing forces will more than compensate against job losses. ADO is ADB’s flagship economic publication.

“ADB’s latest research shows that, […]

Automation and the future of work – understanding the numbers

Automation and the future of work – understanding the numbers

In 2013, we published a paper entitled “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?” , estimating that 47% of U.S. jobs are at risk of automation.

Since then, numerous studies have emerged, arriving at very different conclusions. In particular, one study published by a group of researchers at the University of Mannheim suggests that only 9% of jobs are exposed to automation. And more recently, a study by the OECD suggests that it is actually 14%, with a further “32% of jobs have a risk of between 50 and 70% pointing to the possibility of significant change […]