Tag: employment

The return of the machinery question

The return of the machinery question

THERE IS SOMETHING familiar about fears that new machines will take everyone’s jobs, benefiting only a select few and upending society. Such concerns sparked furious arguments two centuries ago as industrialisation took hold in Britain. People at the time did not talk of an “industrial revolution” but of the “machinery question”. First posed by the economist David Ricardo in 1821, it concerned the “influence of machinery on the interests of the different classes of society”, and in particular the “opinion entertained by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests”. Thomas Carlyle, writing […]

Automation and anxiety

Automation and anxiety

SITTING IN AN office in San Francisco, Igor Barani calls up some medical scans on his screen. He is the chief executive of Enlitic, one of a host of startups applying deep learning to medicine, starting with the analysis of images such as X-rays and CT scans. It is an obvious use of the technology. Deep learning is renowned for its superhuman prowess at certain forms of image recognition; there are large sets of labelled training data to crunch; and there is tremendous potential to make health care more accurate and efficient.

Dr Barani (who used to be an oncologist) […]

Re-educating Rita

Re-educating Rita

IN JULY 2011 Sebastian Thrun, who among other things is a professor at Stanford, posted a short video on YouTube, announcing that he and a colleague, Peter Norvig, were making their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course available free online. By the time the course began in October, 160,000 people in 190 countries had signed up for it. At the same time Andrew Ng, also a Stanford professor, made one of his courses, on machine learning, available free online, for which 100,000 people enrolled. Both courses ran for ten weeks. Mr Thrun’s was completed by 23,000 people; Mr Ng’s by […]

March of the machines

March of the machines

EXPERTS warn that “the substitution of machinery for human labour” may “render the population redundant”. They worry that “the discovery of this mighty power” has come “before we knew how to employ it rightly”. Such fears are expressed today by those who worry that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could destroy millions of jobs and pose a “Terminator”-style threat to humanity. But these are in fact the words of commentators discussing mechanisation and steam power two centuries ago. Back then the controversy over the dangers posed by machines was known as the “machinery question”. Now a very similar debate […]

Ericsson: we should embrace ICT as a tool for transformation

Technology is a tool for transformation. It is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially when it comes to industry. We should embrace ICT as a tool for change as it promotes inclusive social and economic development for all.

Who could have imagined twenty years ago the ICT industry we have today and the possibilities it offers? Who could have imagined that mobile technology has the potential to help put an end to extreme poverty and hunger, whilst providing universal access to healthcare, secondary education and energy services? That smart solutions can make our cities more sustainable, safer […]

Can machines take our jobs without ruining our lives?

Can machines take our jobs without ruining our lives?

Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos Inside the machine JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES always assumed that robots would take our jobs. According to the British economist, writing in 1930, it was all down to “our means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour”. And that was no bad thing. Our working week would shrink to 15 hours by 2030, he reckoned, with the rest of our time spent trying to live “wisely, agreeably and well”.

It hasn’t happened like that – indeed, if anything many of us are working more than we used […]

Will new technologies put us out of work? A peek into the future

Will new technologies put us out of work? A peek into the future

Over the past year, questions about how emerging technologies will impact employment have taken on a new tenor. Will robots take over our jobs? One thing is indisputable: automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will displace workers in the IT and business process outsourcing services industry.

But this is not a new trend.

+ Also on Network World: The 6 hottest new jobs in IT + Such tectonic shifts have occurred every few decades over the last two centuries. With each wave of new technology and each accompanying paradigm shift, jobs have disappeared. During the Industrial Revolution, people feared the loss […]

Column: A remembrance of ‘King Otis’

Column: A remembrance of ‘King Otis’

It has been a long time since I was in high school.

My senior year the most valued course was American history taught by Otis Games, who co-incidentally also taught my father. “King Otis” had a way of making history not only interesting, but meaningful. Periodically he would make a comment, “Don’t let the government run the printing presses.” It was not too long before many of us figured out that what he meant was that he was referring to the printing of money.

The next year, it was off to college and I was a business major. The first year […]

Fast-Food Leaders Play Down Minimum Wage During Automation Tests

Fast-Food Leaders Play Down Minimum Wage During Automation Tests

McDonald’s automated kiosk (REUTERS/Rick Wilking) McDonald’s and Wendy’s are denying a move to test self-service kiosks is connected to a growing movement to raise the minimum wage.

Economists warned increasing the minimum wage is likely to lead to less job opportunities for low-skilled workers. Fast-food and retail establishments have already started using computers and robots to replace low-skilled jobs. McDonald’s and Wendy’s are disputing Tuesday that self-serving computer tests are connected to the minimum wage push.

“An assumption that their use is related to wage or staffing levels is not the case at McDonald’s,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Lisa McComb said. “Staff perform […]

What will the world of work look like in 2066?

What will the world of work look like in 2066?

Credit: Getty Images MT at 50: From robot domination to self-led organisations, here are three scenarios of what our working lives could look like in 50 years’ time.

Looking back is much easier than looking forward – when Management Today published its first issue in 1966, Britain was debating decimalisation, the average weekly wage was £14 and workers were enjoying a ‘golden age’ of employment and easy-to-find jobs.

As our Future of Work special report has demonstrated, we’ve come a long way since then, but it’s safe to say that the changes over the next 50 years will be ever […]