Tag: employment

Schmidt: Deporting international students ‘literally insane’

Schmidt: Deporting international students 'literally insane'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt took aim at the Trump administration’s immigration policies last week, saying any policy that threatens international college students with deportation is “literally insane.”

The comment came as Schmidt, who now leads the Google parent company Alphabet, was asked at an MIT conference how the U.S. should retain top young talent in fields like computer science and artificial intelligence (AI).

“The first and most obvious thing to do is: Don’t kick them out,” Schmidt said, to a round of applause. He added, “I would much rather have them be in America … I’d rather […]

As Robots Replace Workers, What Is Happening to Employment Rates?

As Robots Replace Workers, What Is Happening to Employment Rates?

A Socibot Kiosk intercactive robot, developed by Engineered Arts. Bertrand GuayAFP/Getty

A Socibot Kiosk intercactive robot, developed by Engineered Arts. Bertrand GuayAFP/Getty

Peak coal industry employment was in 1930, when approximately 130,000 people had jobs in the coal industry. Today, as the Washington Post so memorably framed it, fewer people work in the mines than at Arby’s. Coal production, on the other hand, has continued to rise over time, from 400 million short tons in 1940 to 1.17 billion short tons by 2008.It’s not that miners have gotten superhumanly productive; it’s that machinery has replaced people.The current presidential administration frequently focuses […]

More Evidence that Humans and Machines Are Better When They Team Up

More Evidence that Humans and Machines Are Better When They Team Up

By worrying about job displacement, we might end up missing a huge opportunity for technological amplification.

Instead of just fretting about how robots and AI will eliminate jobs, we should explore new ways for humans and machines to collaborate, says Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

“I believe people and machines should not be competitors, they should be collaborators,” Rus said during her keynote at EmTech MIT 2017 , an annual event hosted by MIT Technology Review.How technology will impact employment in coming years has become a huge question for economists, policy-makers, and technologists. […]

Robots no threat to jobs and taxing them may harm economy

Robots no threat to jobs and taxing them may harm economy

The UK already has fewer robots than other leading economies Robots do not pose a threat to UK workers’ jobs, and proposals to tax them risk damaging the economy, a new report has found.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has warned of the danger of the rewards from automation going only to a few bosses of tech firms and argued for them instead to be “publicly managed to share the benefits”, though aides stressed he has not proposed a robot tax.

The new paper from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) think tank warns that restraints on investment in robots […]

MY BIZ: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the future for industry is mixed reality, AI and quantum computing

MY BIZ: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the future for industry is mixed reality, AI and quantum computing

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday outlined artificial intelligence, mixed reality and quantum computing as the cutting-edge technologies to watch out for even as he tried to allay fears over automation posing a threat to employment.

‘We are in the midst of an amazing change. Cloud and mobile revolution is already taking place, but more than that there is an intelligent edge and intelligent cloud,’ he said at the India Today Conclave Next 2017.

Using a host of examples from healthcare to banking and handlooms, the India-born CEO who is on a tour of the country to […]

How AI Could Reshape Economies

How AI Could Reshape Economies

(ktsdesign/Shutterstock) As the field of artificial intelligence continues to expand, prominent scientists, business leaders, and politicians are expressing concerns about what this will mean for the future of work. Many conversations focus on the probability of robots taking away people’s jobs, but economies could be impacted in other ways. According to experts, AI technologies may also change the nature of work and affect financial services. Even if you keep your job, your day to day duties could be drastically altered by new AI-powered tools. Instead of probing these economic nuances, the news media has largely favored more apocalyptic interpretations.

Increasingly, […]

NAB’s tech-led job cuts shows future challenges of the resume-free robot workforce

NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn announced the big job cuts last week. Jessica Hromas by Ed Husic

It was news that didn’t just send a jolt through hardened market analysts. Last Thursday, NAB told everyone that one in 10 of its employees would be losing their jobs.

Not because of overseas competitors or a slide in its profits, 6000 employees will have their jobs taken by robots.NAB hastened to point out that 2000 new, higher-skilled, digitally centred jobs would be created in the meantime, but many of us will be very interested to see the approach the bank takes to retraining […]

Why you should worry more about robots NOT taking over your job

Why you should worry more about robots NOT taking over your job

Artificial Intelligence has finally come of age because of machine learning and the availability of scalable computing power on the cloud. But here’s a new problem that AI researchers needs to solve for: public discourse about this potentially world-changing technology is being monopolized by three tribes of experts, each one with their own agenda. The unfortunate outcome of this discourse, as framed by those tribes’ agendas, is the painting of a dystopian future where humans become virtually obsolete.

The first tribe are the technology companies ; their seller’s mantra is old and tested: “ automate to reduce costs and increase […]

OPINION: Kendall Stanley — Machines march on

I’ve written here before on the impact of computing power on the job market but a handful of recent reports beg the question of what will ultimately be the impact of automation and artificial intelligence.

The News-Review ran a story last Tuesday about how people feel automation will impact their workplace and employment. A poll taken by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said most Americans believe their jobs are safe from automation, at least for the next decade.

The New Yorker took a look at Grand Rapids’ Steelcase where automation is thinning the ranks and other ways automation […]

75% of Aussies think robots will pinch their jobs

Does the rise of robots, computerised jobs and machines terrify you slightly? Does all the airline chatbots, Wi-Fi in the skies, and threats of OTAs have you a teensy bit nervous for your own job lifespan?

Well, turns out you’re not alone, friends.

New YouGov research reveals almost half of 18-29-year-olds in Australia believe a robot could do their job at least as well as them.Developments in genetics, artificial intelligence and robotics mean that robots could actually end up destroying livelihoods across vast swathes of the population, with recent research suggesting that about 45 per cent of the activities people are […]