Tag: inequality

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 […]

8 in 10 South Koreans Believe 4th Industrial Revolution Will See Fewer Jobs

8 in 10 South Koreans Believe 4th Industrial Revolution Will See Fewer Jobs

Among the 1,000 people surveyed, more than 900 expected some will experience adverse effects from the technological changes, but only 35.1 percent thought the problems would be serious, while 57.8 percent thought they weren’t worth worrying about. (Image: Kobiz Media) SEOUL, April 6 (Korea Bizwire) – Eight out of ten people in South Korea believe the fourth industrial revolution will see advanced technologies such as AI and automation take away jobs from people, a recent survey has revealed.

The survey, conducted by market researcher Trend Monitor and published yesterday, asked 1,000 smartphone users aged between 15 and 59 in South […]

Burger-Slinging Failed Labor Secretary Nominee Is Back to Explain Why You Should Earn Less Money

Burger-Slinging Failed Labor Secretary Nominee Is Back to Explain Why You Should Earn Less Money

Andrew Puzder was last seen withdrawing himself from Trump’s nomination as Labor Secretary and retiring from his longtime job as CEO of Hardees and Carl’s Jr. But nothing can stop him from sharing his thoughts about how to make the lives of working people worse.

Considering how much public outrage accompanied every single Trump cabinet nomination, it must be noted that Puzder is the only one who pouted and took his ball and went home, rather than have people say mean things about him, like “Labor Department employees loathe the idea of working for this man” or “Andrew Puzder has […]

One San Francisco Politician Is Exploring A Tax On Robots

One San Francisco Politician Is Exploring A Tax On Robots

With fears about the job-killing effects of automation growing every day, once unthinkable ideas are starting to get an airing . A universal basic income (UBI)–where the government gives everyone enough money to live on– has lots of supporters , especially in Silicon Valley. And now some prominent individuals are calling for a tax on robots. The thinking: If you make robots more expensive, there will be more public funds to help retrain workers (or pay for that basic income)–and the higher cost might keep some companies from buying robots and quickly tanking the employment rate.

Bill Gates recently called […]

Robots and automation are going white collar – but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

Robots and automation are going white collar - but they're not here to steal your job just yet

Reporters called it the robot, but its physical presence was hardly felt.

It was almost invisible, just a Microsoft Excel macro that could write a fairly detailed stock-market report that could then be edited and polished by a human journalist.

But when Reuters introduced the robot to its newsroom in 2007 – just before the financial crisis – it was an early sign that manufacturing was not the only industry that automation was infiltrating.White-collar workers in fields like journalism, finance, medicine, and law are seeing an increasing use of machines, but one much less damaging to workers’ job prospects. Unlike in […]

Robots and automation are going white collar — but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

Robots and automation are going white collar — but they’re not here to steal your job just yet

The anthropomorphic robot named hitchBOT sits on the shoulder of Highway 102 to begin its 6,000-kilometer cross-country journey, outside Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 27, 2014.

Reporters called it the robot, but its physical presence was hardly felt.

It was almost invisible, just a Microsoft Excel macro that could write a fairly detailed stock-market report that could then be edited and polished by a human journalist.But when Reuters introduced the robot to its newsroom in 2007 — just before the financial crisis — it was an early sign that manufacturing was not the only industry that automation was infiltrating.White-collar workers in fields […]

Study: Robots Responsible For “Rust Belt” Unemployment, Not Illegal Immigrants

Study: Robots Responsible For “Rust Belt” Unemployment, Not Illegal Immigrants

MIT and Boston University researchers have found that industrial automation is strongly correlated with unemployment and economic inequality in the manufacturing centers of the United States, taking more jobs away than immigrants or increased foreign imports. Rosser Pryor, Co-owner and President of Factory Automation Systems, stands near new high-performance industrial robots at the company’s Atlanta facility. (AP/David Goldman) MINNEAPOLIS– While the media and numerous politicians have often blamed Midwestern unemployment on illegal immigration, a new study asserts that the advent of factory robots is the most significant factor in the steep reduction of available jobs in what was once […]

Robo-AI jobs doomsday may, er… not actually happen, say boffins

Robo-AI jobs doomsday may, er... not actually happen, say boffins

Damn. Can we have our technopanic back, please?

Special Report Today’s technopanic about robots and AI, largely created by the media, may be overstated.

New modelling published this week attempts to isolate the impact of industrial automation from other factors, and envisage what the economy might look like if the use of robots in industry increases, focusing on the impact on employment rates and working-class wages. Factory robots may have a significant impact on both – but only if the adoption of automation increases dramatically, the authors note. And it may not.In recent months headline-grabbing studies by consultants McKinsey and […]