Tag: inequality

Universal basic income isn’t the answer to the looming AI job crisis

Universal basic income isn’t the answer to the looming AI job crisis

Why don’t we just give everyone $20,000, no strings attached?

That, in essence, is the policy known as Universal Basic Income, or UBI. It has gained popularity on the right and the left because of its simplicity. It would replace the basic income already provided by complex welfare and unemployment insurance plans, instead handing an above-poverty amount to every adult regardless of income or employment status.

UBI appeared in the news recently when Ontario Premier Doug Ford abruptly cancelled a provincial pilot study that was giving slightly smaller amounts to about 4,000 people. The Premier was wrong to cancel the study; […]

The US can survive automation if it reimagines meritocracy

Is meritocracy one of the greatest myths in America? As comedian George Carlin once said, “The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Sounds grim, right? But such attacks on the concept of meritocracy are actually healthy. They’re signs that America is finally reckoning with widening wealth inequality and stagnant wages. The future of work is a space where we can reinvent a concept that sounds good in theory—that employment rewards those with the best skills and work ethic—but which has actually become deeply tainted by barriers to access.

A truly […]

China battles US for AI and robotic space: Who’s ahead?

China battles US for AI and robotic space: Who’s ahead?

Robot dominates: Ford F150 trucks go through robots on the assembly line at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Robots are also entering areas such as logistics warehousing, chemicals and plastics factories and F&B industries. — AFP NO doubt, the FAANGs – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – are making the world a better place.

Still, they are being accused of being BAADD – big, anti-competitive, addictive and destructive to democracy.

Regulators fine them, politicians take them to task, and even their backers warn of their power to cause harm. Much of the techlash is undeserved. There’s fake […]

Gen Z faces ‘tectonic forces’ as it enters workforce

Gen Z faces ‘tectonic forces’ as it enters workforce. Patrick Commins AFR Woodcut Every new generation shapes, and is shaped by, the economy they inherit.

The oldest of the cohort of Australians born between 1994 and 2000 – so-called Generation Z, at least by the rubbery standards applied by marketeers playing demographers – have now started careers and probably begun contemplating how their hopes and dreams line up with the opportunities available to them today.

At first blush, the picture looks rosy. The country has not suffered a recession in 27 years. Indeed, nobody under 45, and relatively few under 50, […]

New York City high schools should expand vocational education

New York City high schools should expand vocational education

A group of students doing their work in a classroom workshop near Robert Bosch Vocational School in Ulm, Germany. The United States is entering an era of dramatic economic upheaval as the industrial economy – and, increasingly, even the service sector – automates tasks once performed by humans. In 20 years, many of the jobs currently held by people without college degrees, including cab and truck drivers, forklift operators and even line cooks, could be filled by robots. Last year, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that up to 73 million American jobs could be lost to […]

Automation And The Future Of Work

Automation And The Future Of Work

AUTOMATION AND THE FUTURE OF WORK

Understanding the impact of automation on workers throughout the world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. AUTOMATION ACROSS THE WORLD – Summary, Advances In Technologies, Worker Displacement, Probabilities of Automation, Research Studies Suggest High Probabilities Of Automation, It’s Different This Time 2. SUSCEPTIBILITY TO AUTOMATION IN THE WORLD ECONOMIES – Developing Economies, Advanced Economies 3. GENERAL CONSEQUENCES – Political, Economic 4. SOME SOLUTIONS – Prepare For Automation With “Difficult To Automate” Skills, Convince Employers And Educational Institutions To Address The Skills Gap, Pursue High Skill Occupations, Education – Real World Project Challenges […]

Rest Easy, Sort of: AI Will Create More Jobs Than It Destroys

Rest Easy, Sort of: AI Will Create More Jobs Than It Destroys

Artificial intelligence, robotics and the fourth industrial revolution are setting the stage for a massive, global expansion in job creation, according to a new report released by the World Economic Forum .

Entitled “ The Future of Jobs ”, the report predicts that although the new technology will wipe out 75 million jobs worldwide by 2022, 133 million new jobs will be created in their place. The Swiss organization behind the annual agenda-setting Davos summit claims that on the whole, the robot revolution will by far deliver a net positive contribution to employment. Smooth Sailing or Storms Ahead?

The […]

Automation in a low-wage country

Automation in a low-wage country

Robots are common in car production: VW production line in Puebla, Mexico. © Lossie/picture-alliance/dpa

Evermore industrial robots are being used in Mexico, where the potential for automation is great. To what extent robots will really replace low-wage labour remains to be seen however.

Mexico has historically been a low-wage economy. In the past, the USA’s southern neighbour mostly attracted foreign investors with low production costs which basically resulted from cheap labour. Among the members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), a club of advanced economies, Mexico has the lowest minimum wage. It is a mere 88.36 pesos per […]

To keep ahead of the machines, human workers need better training

To keep ahead of the machines, human workers need better training

1 of 6Visitors watch a robot performing at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. China’s No. 2 leader appealed Wednesday for support for free trade and promised to improve conditions for foreign companies following tit-for-tat U.S. and Chinese tariff hikes in an escalating battle over Beijing’s technology Photo: Associated Press 2 of 6An Autonomous Container Trailer transports a cargo container to the baggage holding area during a test drive at Changi International Airport in Singapore, on Tuesday, July 17, 2018. The airport, voted the world’s best for the past six years by Skytrax, is […]

Progress In Artificial Intelligence Has Opened Doors To Dystopian Threats

Progress In Artificial Intelligence Has Opened Doors To Dystopian Threats

As the field of application for artificial intelligence is growing, so is its threat landscape. Recent improvements in hardware indicate that AI algorithms are now able to surpass human accuracy in several aspects. However, the technological progress also poses unprecedented ethical challenges. Researchers and AI theorists believe that beside a clutch of economic benefits and global opportunities created by AI, the technology also poses global risks, which could surpass nuclear technology as well.

As research progresses in this field, scientific risk analyses suggest that high-potential damages resulting from AI should be taken very seriously — even if the probability of […]