Tag: inequality

Fear Not The Job-Stealing Robots

Fear Not The Job-Stealing Robots

A humanoid robot stands on display during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 2018. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg. Let’s face it. You’re probably like most people. You’ve heard about the workplace automation probably taking your job. But it won’t happen to you or maybe anyone you know, right? Much hot air is spent on the topic of workplace automation and its consequences for workers. Opinions are divided. Some people forecast we’ll take automation in our stride, as we have in the past. That displaced workers will be absorbed into new and emerging industries. Others foretell of a gloomier […]

On AI and Jobs, We Are All Augmentarians Now

On AI and Jobs, We Are All Augmentarians Now

Walmart’s Katie Finnegan onstage at Emtech Next For a couple of days this week, I attended the EmTech NEXT conference at MIT, which is organized by MIT Technology Review. The focus of the event was that fabled idea “The Future of Work,” and if you are on the side of the humans, the future seems pretty bright. Virtually every speaker (MIT folks, AI and robotics leaders) came out in favor of augmentation over automation. They say that AI and robots won’t take our jobs, but rather augment them by doing the things we humans don’t do so well.

I must […]

How to think about automation

How to think about automation

Everyday, both in print and digital media, scary stories emerge about robots killing jobs. For now, such stories are familiar in developed countries, but they foreshadow an emerging premonition that the process of automation will soon affect millions of jobs in developing countries.

Automation has many dimensions, but the one that gets the most attention is the automation of tasks that are laborious, repetitive, dangerous, dirty, or dull. More often than not, these types of jobs pay less than what is considered a decent wage.

Once upon a time, rickshaws used to ply major streets of Dhaka. Now Dhaka’s roads are […]

Robots To Destroy 2.9m Working Class Jobs – And Tory Seats Will Be Hit Hardest

Robots To Destroy 2.9m Working Class Jobs - And Tory Seats Will Be Hit Hardest

Automation is on course to destroy almost five times as many working class jobs as the collapse of coal and steel in the 1980s, alarming new analysis predicts.

The forecast, published by a group of Labour MPs and activists called Red Shift, paints a bleak picture of the future jobs market – and finds that Tory constituencies face the biggest threats.

Studying OECD and House of Commons library figures, the research found that, while new jobs will be created, those on the lowest wages will be hit hardest by automation’s sweeping changes.The study says: Between 2.1 million and 2.9 million working […]

AI, AUTOMATION, AND THE FUTURE OF WORK: TEN THINGS TO SOLVE FOR

BRIEFING NOTE PREPARED FOR THE TECH4GOOD SUMMIT, ORGANIZED BY THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY JUNE 2018

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming businesses and will contribute to economic growth via contributions to productivity. They will also help address “moonshot†societal challenges in areas from health to climate change. At the same time, these technologies will transform the nature of work and the workplace itself—which is the focus of this briefing note. Machines will be able to carry out more of the tasks done by humans, complement the work that humans do, and even perform some tasks that go beyond what humans […]

Robots & AI creating more jobs in Asia than they destroy

Robots & AI creating more jobs in Asia than they destroy

The belief that robots, automation, and AI simply displace jobs and make humans irrelevant is not borne out in Asia, reports Chris Middleton. However, there are lessons to learn from the technologies’ impact – in Asia and the rest of the world.

Robots and automation are creating more jobs in Asia than they destroy, according to a new report from the Asia Development Bank (ADB).

ADB analysis of a dozen Asian economies between 2005 and 2015 found that rising demand more than compensated for jobs lost to automation. The adoption of robotics and other connected systems stimulated higher productivity and […]

What will the future of work look like?

What will the future of work look like?

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Harry Ridgewell attended Chatham House’s Future of Work 2018 conference. The independent commission was set up and is co-chaired by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson. The conference covered the trend of slowing global productivity ( Mckinsey ), how […]

Does America need a new social contract? Politicians and tech leaders weigh in on the changing shape of work

Does America need a new social contract? Politicians and tech leaders weigh in on the changing shape of work

Sen. Mark Warner speaks at a progressive politicians event in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg) Technologies younger than some pop stars are dramatically reshaping the modern economy and leaving many workers without the societal protections enjoyed by their parents and grandparents. The 18th Century philosophers who first imagined a “social contract” between government and the governed had no way to predict 21st Century concerns, like a shift from employment to contract work or the looming cloud of automation. I acknowledge that President Trump is probably the worst person in history to be president of the United States but […]

PREVIEW: Ready For It: Automation & the Future of Work

PREVIEW: Ready For It: Automation & the Future of Work

> 1. © 2018 Matthew R Mottola

3. Matthew empowers innovation through the Future of Work, a paradigm shift in the way we leverage technology to match & manage labor. Currently at Microsoft, Matthew is building the infrastructure to drive enterprise adoption & enablement of the future of work. At Georgia Tech, he is teaching this future. At universities & enterprises, he is speaking on this future. And, for early stage ventures, he is advising on & investing in this future. Whether by choice or chance, his life has always gravitated toward technology and its impact on work. […]

Guaranteed jobs may not solve the Democrats’ bigger problem with many voters

Policies to ensure everyone has a job sound appealing. But they may not help Democrats at the ballot box, and aren’t economically realistic.

The next big idea from the Democrats is a universal guarantee of a job to everyone who wants one.

Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders, all potential candidates for president in 2020, have endorsed some version of the idea.Booker would start with a pilot program in 15 urban and rural areas, using federal funds to provide employment at $15 an hour.Gillibrand went considerably further. She told The Nation magazine, “Guaranteed jobs programs, creating floors for wages […]