Tag: inequality

Unusual level of volatility in the decades ahead: Bain

Unusual level of volatility in the decades ahead: Bain

A recent report by Bain predicts that three mega-trends—changing demographics, automation and rising inequality—will shape the world in the next decade and beyond.

A robot controls forklift truck. Photo: Alamy “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, a novel set in a society on the brink of a revolution. It is also one of the most popular opening lines in literature, as it resonates with the perpetual struggle of the haves and the have nots. Consulting firm Bain & Co. recently released a report […]

Column: Driverless tractor-trailers could open up more jobs

The future of trucking may tell us a lot about the future of work. It’s no secret that many Americans fear losing their jobs to automation. In a Pew Research Center poll last October, nearly three-quarters of respondents worried that “computers and robots could do most of the work currently done by humans.” And yet the job market seems to be sending the opposite message: With a low unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, many companies say they can’t find good workers.

Trucking symbolizes the contradiction. Trucking companies complain they can’t hire enough drivers, and the situation will get worse before […]

What trucking tells us about the future of work

What trucking tells us about the future of work

A truck on Highway 101 last month in Larkspur, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The future of trucking may tell us a lot about the future of work. It’s no secret that many Americans fear losing their jobs to automation. In a Pew Research Center poll last October, nearly three-quarters of respondents worried that “computers and robots could do most of the work currently done by humans.” And yet the job market seems to be sending the opposite message: With a low unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, many companies say they can’t find good workers.

Trucking symbolizes the contradiction. Trucking companies […]

Is tech dividing America?

Is tech dividing America?

Pablo Declan for POLITICO When Americans consider how technology has changed their lives, they tend to focus on how the internet and smartphones have altered how they watch TV, connect with friends, or how they shop. But those changes pale in comparison to how technology has already restructured the economy, shaking up the workforce and shifting opportunity to tech-centric urban hubs. As artificial intelligence quickly moves from fiction to daily reality, that revolution will arguably become much more consequential.

Economists broadly agree that technology will continue to be an engine of economic growth. But it also will upend old certainties […]

‘Robot jobs’ and gig economy point to need for universal basic income

Many Australian workers face a "significant shock" to wages and job prospects due to the impact of automation and technological change, says jobs website Seek.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry into the "Future of Work and Workers", the company’s chief financial officer, Geoff Roberts, warned of a hollowing out of mid-level jobs in Australia. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Call-centre workers fear greater automation. Photo: Robert Rough Unease about the use of robots and automation to replace human workers has been on the rise amid a climate of flat wages and digital upheaval.

It […]

When robots take our jobs

When robots take our jobs

Robotics at work on a Telsa car in California. April 23, 2013. (EPA) This is the weekly roundup of The WorldPost , of which Nathan Gardels is the editor in chief.

Having slowly recovered from the great recession a decade ago, the global economy is finally back on the growth track — including in the United States, as the American president characteristically trumpeted in his State of the Union speech this week.

The coming peril resides in the promise of this good news. As unemployment falls and puts pressure on wages to rise in the age of digital capitalism, automation […]

Minds and machines explore new territory together, says MIT research scientist

The cutting-edge technology of minds and machines is working together, says MIT expert

Abu Dhabi: The combination of mind and machine or human and artificial intelligence will define humanity’s future, an MIT scientist said on Wednesday.

Dr Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, told the majlis of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, that when minds or human intelligence partner with machines or artificial intelligence (AI), we will have the most significant advancement to our capabilities.Despite the many human […]

The Question with AI Isn’t Whether We’ll Lose Our Jobs — It’s How Much We’ll Get Paid

The Question with AI Isn’t Whether We’ll Lose Our Jobs — It’s How Much We’ll Get Paid

anucha sirivisansuwan/Getty Images The basic fact is that technology eliminates jobs, not work. It is the continuous obligation of economic policy to match increases in productive potential with increases in purchasing power and demand. Otherwise the potential created by technical progress runs to waste in idle capacity, unemployment, and deprivation. — National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress, Technology and the American Economy, Volume 1, February 1966, pg. 9.

The fear that machines will replace human labor is a durable one in the public mind, from the time of the Luddites in the early 19th century. Yet most economists […]

Robots could kill many Las Vegas jobs

Robots could kill many Las Vegas jobs

Aeolus, a robotics company, demonstrates what its robots can do at CES 2018 in Las Vegas earlier this month. SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) – Elvis just started a new, somewhat boring job. When a guest at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas needs a toothbrush or an extra towel, he brings it to their room.

Three-feet tall and covered in decorative stars, Elvis is a robot. And while it doesn’t replace any human employees at the moment, it is a sign of what’s next for Las Vegas. Underwater robots to measure Antarctica climate threat

Earlier this month, Las Vegas hosted […]

The High-Tech Poorhouse

The High-Tech Poorhouse

A man on the street in Newark, NJ. Tony Fischer / Flickr We live in what legal scholar Frank Pasquale has called a “scored society.” Corporations and governments collect unprecedented amounts of data about us — our habits, our histories, our beliefs, our desires, our social networks. Machine learning algorithms parse that data to assess our worthiness for public benefits, for jobs, for loans, for insurance, and for suspicion in the criminal justice system.

The rich are not exempt from this reality, but it’s the poor and working class who are most endangered by it. Predictive policing algorithms launder racial […]