Tag: inequality

Robots, Automation, and Jobs: A Primer for Policymakers

Robots, Automation, and Jobs: A Primer for Policymakers

Robert D. Atkinson

There is considerable interest, if not consternation, about the potential effects of emerging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence on employment. There is also considerable confusion about the interaction between automation, technology, and jobs. Here are 13 key points that are important for policymakers to understand about that interaction.

Read Primer There is considerable interest, if not consternation, about the potential effects of emerging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence on employment. There is also considerable confusion about the interaction between automation, technology, and jobs. Here are 13 key points that are important for […]

The Robot Economy: Ready or Not, Here It Comes

The Robot Economy: Ready or Not, Here It Comes

Duc Tran, an automation engineer, observes the fully autonomous robotic truck loader during a test at the Wynright Robotics facility in Arlington, Texas, July 18, 2012. (Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux / The New York Times) September 17 changed everything.

On that day in 2013, Oxford University published an innocuously titled academic paper by two mostly unknown economists. But " The Future of Employment " wasn’t just another number-crunching exercise in opacity by a couple of dreary scientists. No, their bombshell report portended a coming robot apocalypse that could change the nature of human civilization, and perhaps even human beings themselves.

Thankfully, the […]

How San Francisco Plans to Fight ‘Job-Killing’ Robots

How San Francisco Plans to Fight 'Job-Killing' Robots

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CREDIT: Getty Images The tech industry collectively face-palmed when Trump’s treasury secretary said earlier this year that the threat of robots taking human jobs was "not even on our radar screen."

There is a growing evidence that robots and artificial intelligence could displace huge swaths of the American workforce in the next couple of decades, much sooner than the "50 to 100 more years away" timeline that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects.In San Francisco, where robots already run food deliveries for Yelp’s Eat24 and make lattés at a mall coffee kiosk , one politician is working […]

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

jane kim supervisor san francisco (San Francisco County Supervisor Jane Kim addresses a crowd during a "Yes on Prop 61" rally outside City Hall in 2016.Josh Edelson/AP)
The tech industry collectively face-palmed when Trump’s treasury secretary said earlier this year that the threat of robots taking human jobs was "not even on our radar screen."

There is a growing evidence that robots and artificial intelligence could displace huge swaths of the American workforce in the next couple of decades, much sooner than the "50 to 100 more years away" timeline that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects.
In San […]

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

San Francisco is considering a once unthinkable measure to offset the threat of job-killing robots

jane kim supervisor san francisco (San Francisco County Supervisor Jane Kim addresses a crowd during a "Yes on Prop 61" rally outside City Hall in 2016.Josh Edelson/AP)
The tech industry collectively face-palmed when Trump’s treasury secretary said earlier this year that the threat of robots taking human jobs was "not even on our radar screen."

There is a growing evidence that robots and artificial intelligence could displace huge swaths of the American workforce in the next couple of decades, much sooner than the "50 to 100 more years away" timeline that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he expects.
In San […]

Workers losing out as automation quickens

Workers losing out as automation quickens

Workers are, in general, losing out in the economy, writes Brian Lucey . Humanoid robot bartender ‘Carl’ fills a cocktail glass. A large part of the growth of populist movements may be reasonably attributed to the real or perceived decline in opportunities in employment.

As labour productivity has risen, the share of the wealth pie which labour takes home has fallen. In most developed countries, including Ireland, the share of GDP attributable to labour has fallen to or below half.

This trend is long term and is evident in greater or lesser extent across the globe.To view this media, you need […]

Will automation become the next job killer?

Will automation become the next job killer?

Automation is on track to become the ultimate job killer. In fact, much like the industrial revolution 200 years ago, the automation of human tasks is revolutionising both the workplace and society. What this means for the manufacturing sector can be both thrilling and frightening depending on whose point of view you take.

According to a recent article in phys.org, the fear of losing our jobs to machines is not new. With some forecasts indicating that within 20 years, 35 per cent of all UK jobs are at risk of vanishing from automation, it might be a good time to […]

Opinion: Can humans compete with technology in the workplace?

Opinion: Can humans compete with technology in the workplace?

Since the Industrial Revolution, the fear of machinery and technology destroying jobs has gripped society.

At the turn of the 20th century, automobiles brought forth a new era of transportation, simultaneously rendering blacksmiths and wainwrights obsolete. The combine harvester, also an invention of the early 20th century, obliterated demand for agricultural human capital in the U.S.

The examples are endless, but these two exhibit a larger point: An underlying dread of technological advancement has persisted throughout centuries, and the sense of panic remains.Robotics and artificial intelligence threaten to render human labor an artifact of some inefficient past — a semblance of […]

Digital life: We’re clueless about the coming robot job takeover, report says

Robotics and artificial intelligence are retooling the workplace faster than we can make sense of it.

What should we do, for instance, with the taxi drivers and long-haul truckers who could see their livelihoods evaporate with the evolution of self-driving vehicles?

Researchers say not only is the world changing at break-neck speed, but that sociologists and economists can’t keep up with what the fallout will mean for the workplace.“Policymakers are flying blind into what has been called the fourth industrial revolution or the second machine age,” wrote Tom Mitchell and Erik Brynjolfsson in an essay in the journal Nature this month. […]

Automation and the Future of Work: Start the Nationwide Conversation

Automation and the Future of Work: Start the Nationwide Conversation

As the media continues to warn of an apocalyptic future where automation technology will fracture our employment landscape, Enate CEO Kit Cox, explains why innovation will override disaster.

When The World Economic Forum (WEF) released The Future of Jobs report in January 2016, it caused a stir amongst both companies and individuals with its controversial claims about the impact of technology on the future of work. The report claimed that within the next 15-20 years, we will see technologies “blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.” WEF founder Klaus Schwab, highlighted that these changes will fundamentally alter […]