Tag: inequality

Robots and Artificial Intelligence will take your job

Robots and Artificial Intelligence will take your job

Since the first industrial revolution, there has been a recurrent fear that technology advancements will displace humans from their jobs even though they also give room for new jobs that require new skills.

In 1589, Queen Elizabeth I reportedly refused to grant the inventor of a mechanical knitting machine a patent for fear of putting manual knitters out of work. When the knitting machine was eventually invented, it provided jobs for operators and technicians.

Currently, especially in the wake of the fourth industrial revolution, futurists have projected a future where artificial intelligence (AI) will replace many jobs. A 2017 study by […]

Will the future of work be a utopia or a dystopia?

Will the future of work be a utopia or a dystopia?

Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics will have a dramatic impact on the future of work. Already, today’s most valuable technology companies employ about one-fifth as many workers as the most valuable companies in the 1960s. Estimates of workforce displacement due to automation range from the OECD’s 14 percent of current jobs to the European think tank Bruegel’s 54 percent . Automation will disproportionately affect low-skill workers that are least able to adapt to these changes. On May 14, Center for Technology Innovation Founding Director Darrell West unpacked these trends in a presentation and a panel discussion held […]

How tech affects women

How tech affects women

There is widespread discussion at present that robots and technology may take away jobs in the apparel sector in Bangladesh as well as in other developing and developed nations across the world.

It is thought that in the labour-intensive world, repetitive tasks previously done by humans can be done in far more efficient, effective way by the machines. Advanced technologies like AI and machine-learning might be able to perform, even the white-collar jobs, better than humans.

Whether technology will threaten jobs across the world or not is a fresh debate. More specifically, it is being discussed that technology upgradation will specifically […]

Karl Marx and the spectre of fascism

Karl Marx and the spectre of fascism

Photo: AFP The 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx last Saturday has led to a spate of articles about the guru of revolution, many critical, some adulatory. Let us, as Deng Xiaoping exhorted us, seek truth from facts.

Marx was no ivory-tower intellectual, one of his most famous quotes being, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point however is to change it.” Measured by that yardstick, Marx has been a dismal failure.

Look all around you and you will see the triumph of capitalism, Marx’s lifelong adversary. Regimes that called themselves Marxist have either bitten the […]

New technologies are affecting jobs the world over. Is your job safe?

New technologies are affecting jobs the world over. Is your job safe?

New technologies are affecting jobs the world over. Is your job safe? Photo – Shutterstock At the 51st annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila last week, discussions centred on the advancement of new technologies and the impact robotics and AI would have on local jobs.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Sameer Khatiwada, ADB economist at Economic Research and Regional Co-operation Department, told The Myanmar Times that while some jobs will likely be replaced by machines, new functions are also emerging that will require human skills.

Here are some excerpts of the interview, […]

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs in Asia

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs in Asia

MANILA: As Asia and the Pacific seeks inclusive and sustainable economic growth, countries are adapting to the possibility that new technologies in fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence may lead to challenges for some industries and groups of workers, according to participants at a high-level Asian Development Bank (ADB) seminar held here on Friday.

“Advances in new technologies will raise incomes and increase demand from Asia’s rising consumer class,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said at the Governors’ Seminar during ADB’s 51st Annual Meeting. “Countries that maintain flexible policies, support improvements to education, and put in place a stronger social […]

Robot revolution could give us bread and roses

Robot revolution could give us bread and roses

John Harris asks what happens next to all the jobs that technology will obliterate ( Ten million jobs could be gone in 15 years. What then?, 30 April ). He fears that inequality will worsen. Not necessarily. Let robots do the boring, repetitive stuff. Humans can do all those jobs required to create a better life for all, and provide decent pay and good working conditions to boot. It’s not rocket science. We need many more care, support, youth and early years workers. In fact, we pretty much need to reinvent local government and the services it should provide. […]

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs

As Asia and the Pacific seeks inclusive and sustainable economic growth, countries are adapting to the possibility that new technologies in fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence may lead to challenges for some industries and groups of workers, according to participants at a high-level Asian Development Bank (ADB) seminar.

“Advances in new technologies will raise incomes and increase demand from Asia’s rising consumer class,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said at the Governors’ Seminar during ADB’s 51st Annual Meeting in Manila

“Countries that maintain flexible policies, support improvements to education, and put in place a stronger social safety net will be […]

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs in Asia

ADB seminar considers challenge of technological change, globalization, and jobs in Asia

Second, automation takes place only where it is both technically and economically feasible, and it has so far been concentrated in the region’s capital-intensive manufacturing with relatively low employment levels.

“Advances in new technologies will raise incomes and increase demand from Asia’s rising consumer class,” ADB President Mr. Takehiko Nakao said at the Governors’ seminar during ADB’s 51st annual meet. (Image Credit: Twitter) As Asia and the Pacific seeks inclusive and sustainable economic growth, countries are adapting to the possibility that new technologies in fields such as robotics and artificial intelligence may lead to challenges for some industries and […]

‘What the hell is that?’ Self-driving delivery robots hit London

'What the hell is that?' Self-driving delivery robots hit London

The big Japanese akita dog is stopped in his tracks by the box on wheels, unsure whether it is an equal to be greeted or another south London surface to be marked. His owner, hot on his heels, is just as surprised when he rounds the corner.

“STOP, in the name of love!” a man sings at the machine, palm outstretched, jumping back in mock alarm. “What the hell is that?”

It is a self-driving delivery robot, and it is also a conversation starter – a unit of rounded plastic about the size of a mini-fridge, sending ripples through the streets […]