Tag: inequality

AI won’t replace humans, just like computers didn’t

Experts are confident that artificial intelligence will operate hand in hand with humans in the workplace, not take their jobs.

With everything else that’s been going on in our busy lives, it’s been easy for humans to forget about the oncoming technological storm. As automation creeps into factories, workplaces and homes, artificial intelligence is making itself part of day-to-day life in numerous industries. Already deployed in devices used by three-quarters of global consumers, self-learning machines are observing the way we live, and copying the way we complete tasks.

In many ways, we’re already letting the machines take over…Should we fear this […]

Keeping Pace with Digitalisation

Keeping Pace with Digitalisation

The forthcoming technological revolutions will transform the very nature of our work. It is unclear whether we will be ready for these changes or whether we will be left behind, marred by our own inertia.

At the same time, economic and technological changes will be catalysts for a new, emerging populism, especially under the circumstances of COVID-19. Will our jobs keep pace? How to prepare economies, and citizens, for fast-approaching technological advances? Can life-long learning and re-skilling be the key to success? The subject of a recent Visegrad Insight Breakfast discussion in partnership with the European Liberal Forum […]

Will a Robot Take Your Job? It’s a Matter of Adaptability, Researchers Say

Will a Robot Take Your Job? It’s a Matter of Adaptability, Researchers Say

Technology Increasing automation will likely hit people with limited skill sets the hardest. “Robot-proof” jobs will likely require greater education, interpersonal skills and adaptability.

As many offices and factory floors sit empty during the pandemic, the picture of these human-free facilities makes it easy to imagine those spaces filling up with robotic replacements.

If that were to happen, it’s not clear when: Some reports claim that up to half of all jobs in the U.S. are at risk of being automated, and the pivot might come in just a few years or decades from now . But when thinking about […]

5 Ways Automation Will Change the Nature of Work

5 Ways Automation Will Change the Nature of Work

Source: Kate Began, Polycase

Economists have worried about the demise of work since automation started transforming American factories in the mid-20th century. Now that AI is on the scene, industry and commerce are standing on the verge of perhaps the greatest rush into automation ever, and the questions have turned philosophical. What will change in the day-to-day way that work gets done, and what will be required of tomorrow’s workers?

For one thing, there’s still no agreement among experts on just how many jobs can or will be replaced by automation. But even putting aside how many jobs we lose […]

Robots and the gender pay gap in Europe

Robots and the gender pay gap in Europe

Robotics and automation. Whilst robotization can benefit a number of industries and occupations, it also has the ability to worsen pay disparities between men and women.

Men in medium and high-skilled occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization when compared to other demographics.

It is vital governments increase their efforts to equip women and men equally with the skills most relevant for future employment, write three economists. Recent advances in automation and their implications for the economy and society are central issues in global policy and academic debates (see Baldwin 2019, Klenert et al. 2020). Despite the comprehensive examination of the […]

What do AI users really think it’s capable of?

What do AI users really think it's capable of?

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Ryzhi)

It’s safe to say we’ve been distracted for the last few years. While a tumultuous political, social and economic landscape has seized Britain, in the background a technological revolution has been taking place. No longer a futuristic concept, artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into our lives right now.

Self-learning machines are already found in devices and cloud services used by three in four global consumers. They’re also dictating which media we consume, how we communicate with each other and what our jobs entail. Could human intelligence soon be replaced?Perhaps not. There are a […]

This is the effect robotics is having on the gender pay gap across Europe

This is the effect robotics is having on the gender pay gap across Europe

Robotics and automation. Whilst robotization can benefit a number of industries and occupations, it also has the ability to worsen pay disparities between men and women.

Men in medium and high-skilled occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization when compared to other demographics.

It is vital governments increase their efforts to equip women and men equally with the skills most relevant for future employment, write three economists. Recent advances in automation and their implications for the economy and society are central issues in global policy and academic debates (see Baldwin 2019, Klenert et al. 2020). Despite the comprehensive examination of the […]

Why Deep Investment In Automation Results In More Jobs

Why Deep Investment In Automation Results In More Jobs

As the coronavirus has swept across the globe, the swathes of redundancies that have followed in its wake have relegated the “robots are taking our jobs” narrative into the background. It was a narrative with a somewhat mixed logic at the best of times.

For instance, research from the London School of Economics (LSE)found that the introduction of industrial robots has actually increased wages for employees while also increasing the number of job opportunities for highly skilled people.

The researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of industrial robots over 17 countries between 1993 and 2007 across 14 different […]

As America’s labor market faces fundamental change, it’s time to consider a universal basic income

As America’s labor market faces fundamental change, it’s time to consider a universal basic income

Robots on a grid at an Ocado fullfilment center in the U.K. where the company has about 600,000 active customers. Ocado entered into an exclusive partnership with Kroger to build the automated online grocery fulfillment centers in the U.S. COVID-19, in a matter of weeks, has stripped us bare of any illusion that we have it all figured out. Societal inequity has been thrust center stage, from the number of people one crisis away from poverty to the clear racial inequity in the disease’s disparate impact on communities of color.

In a strange paradox we were shown just how wide […]

Ethiopia: Technology’s Impact On the Labor Market

Ethiopia: Technology's Impact On the Labor Market

Though an outright conclusion cannot be reached on the argument that technological surge affects the labor market adversely and put millions of labors out of the loop, there are many concerns that technological innovation will lead to increased unemployment, suppressed wages and greater inequality.

New technologies, as they hold immense promise, are also seen as a threat, potentially disrupting labor markets and contributing to income inequality. The biggest public fear is that robots and Artificial Intelligence /AI/ will replace human jobs on a large scale, resulting in mass unemployment or underemployment–and, consequently, widespread impoverishment around the globe. In fact, labor […]