Tag: inequality

Automation won’t bring an apocalypse—but that doesn’t mean it will be easy

Automation won’t bring an apocalypse—but that doesn’t mean it will be easy

One takeaway of our new analysis of automation’s impacts is that the trends might not be that much more disruptive in the next few decades than they were in the last few.

Technological possibility doesn’t mean reality, after all.

In fact, our analysis of the past three decades shows the ratio of jobs to workers actually increased in the years 1980 to 2016—the era that we call IT-driven automation. Authors What’s more, our main forward-looking forward analysis, employing detailed occupational forecasts provided by McKinsey Global Institute, suggests that only about one quarter of today’s jobs stand to be heavily disrupted by […]

IMF study highlights how digitization has transformed China

IMF study highlights how digitization has transformed China

How digitization has transformed China. Source: Shutterstock CHINA has grown to become a force to reckon with thanks to its championing of artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, and other new and emerging technologies. A new study by the International Monetary Funds (IMF) takes a hard look at the country’s digitization achievements so far.

Despite the debates and discussions that the US-China trade war is certain to make an impact on technology, China’s digital economy is expected to continue to expand rapidly. US-CHINA STRAIN MUCH BIGGER THAN TRADE WAR SAYS NUS PROFESSOR 0are quoted to have revitalized the economy.

Thanks to digitization, businesses […]

Guarantee Jobs …to Robots?

Earlier this week, and just months before the Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised guaranteed income for the poor if his party comes to power at the Centre.

For it to fly, the populist plan should also account for a future where technology efficiency will spawn mass unemployment. Gandhi’s income guarantee will have to be expansive and nimble to take the sting out of income disparity and looming social discontent.

Widespread unemployment from technology changes can no longer be dismissed as an alarmist theory, nor can its social impact. Silicon Valley has known this for a while. Everyone, from […]

It Turns Out That Socialism is Very Popular in America

It Turns Out That Socialism is Very Popular in America

Above: Democratic Socialists of America protest in Washington, DC (Credit: Washington.carpe-diem.events) The following is part one of a two-part essay on the reasons for the growth of Socialism in 2010s America . Above: Residents protest evictions in San Francisco, where Sillicon Valley’s gentrification has resulted in skyrocketing housing costs and growing homelessness (credit: Zelda Bronstein, The Nation /Ted Gullicksen, Antievictionmappingproject.net).

One out of three millennials in Donald Trump’s America embrace socialism . That number rises to nearly half of all millennial Democrats. More millennials voted for Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, in the 2016 Democratic primaries than for Hillary […]

Automation is a bigger threat, depending on race, education and where you live, among other factors

Automation is a bigger threat, depending on race, education and where you live, among other factors

Is a robot coming for your job?

That is more likely for Californians who work in Riverside, San Bernardino, Merced or Modesto, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution. Those who live in San Francisco or San Jose have a better chance of weathering a coming onslaught of automation and artificial intelligence.

The new study by the Washington think tank suggests that intelligent machines may well take over many more tasks from humans in the future. But it forecasts dramatic differences among cities, occupations, ethnic and racial groups, educational levels and age groups.“California turns out to have super-stark […]

Endangered by Automation? Race and Education Are Factors

Endangered by Automation? Race and Education Are Factors

When it comes to robots taking human jobs, where you live, your race and education level matter. The likelihood of low- and mid-skill jobs being automated is increasing, according to a new study. Shutterstock/Pressmaster

(TNS) — Is a robot coming for your job?

That is more likely for Californians who work in Riverside, San Bernardino, Merced or Modesto, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution. Those who live in San Francisco or San Jose have a better chance of weathering a coming onslaught of automation and artificial intelligence.The new study by the Washington think tank suggests that intelligent […]

Automation is a bigger threat, depending on race, education and where you live, among other factors

Automation is a bigger threat, depending on race, education and where you live, among other factors

Is a robot coming for your job?

That is more likely for Californians who work in Riverside, San Bernardino, Merced or Modesto, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution. Those who live in San Francisco or San Jose have a better chance of weathering a coming onslaught of automation and artificial intelligence.

The new study by the Washington think tank suggests that intelligent machines may well take over many more tasks from humans in the future. But it forecasts dramatic differences among cities, occupations, ethnic and racial groups, educational levels and age groups."California turns out to have super-stark […]

Technology and robots will shake labour policies in Asia and the world

Technology and robots will shake labour policies in Asia and the world

Developing countries must begin seriously considering how technological changes will impact labour trends. In the 21st century, governments cannot ignore how changes in technology will affect employment and political stability.

The automation of work – principally through robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of things (IoT), collectively known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution – will provide an unprecedented boost to productivity and profit. It will also threaten the stability of low- and mid-skilled jobs in many developing and middle-income countries. From labour to automation

Developing countries must begin seriously considering how technological changes will impact labour trends. Technology now […]

The Doomed Fallacy of Jobs and Growth (Part 2)

The Doomed Fallacy of Jobs and Growth (Part 2)

Jobs. You just have to say the word and objections to anything seem to evaporate. A slight lift in the employment figure and the nation breathes a sigh of relief. But why, in a time of rapid automation, does work still dominate our thinking? In Part 2 of this series (you can read Part 1 here ), Mike Dowson challenges our assumptions about jobs.

If you arrived from outer space, and plugged a human language translator into Earth’s chatter, you’d probably notice something odd. It appears we humans believe our well-being depends on the possession of a ‘job’.

This might […]

“Lean In” and 8 Other Bad Business Buzzwords

“Lean In” and 8 Other Bad Business Buzzwords

A take on some of the key features of the bad business utopias that are busy colonizing the future. Photo by Morsa Images/Getty Images The near future is more likely to be a neoliberal dystopia than the tech-enabled utopia conjured up by big business, writes Peter Fleming in The Worst Is Yet to Come: A Post-Capitalist Survival Guide . He argues that we need “radical pessimism” to aim for the future we actually want, and aids the effort with sardonic humor that skewers the mythologies of our exploitative economic system.

In 1949, the right-wing economist F. A. Hayek published […]