Tag: inequality

Rising Inequality May Be the Real Risk of Automation

Rising Inequality May Be the Real Risk of Automation

If your main worry over automation is losing your job, history suggests you’ll probably be just fine.

After all, even a century of unprecedented technological advancement in transportation, production and communication hasn’t caused labor’s share of national income to significantly budge. Economists David Autor and Anna Salomons reckon that’s because the primary driver of employment has actually been population growth, despite all the emphasis placed in academic circles on how machines augment human labor as well as why they will ultimately replace us anyway.

The bigger concern, they say, is how technological advances will affect earnings distribution.Essentially, the argument that the […]

The end of jobs and the future of work

The end of jobs and the future of work

It seems that whatever the country, whatever the economic context, the critical question is becoming ever more pertinent; what is the future of work in an era of exponential technology development?

“Artificial intelligence is arguably the big game changer and becoming more commonplace. We already see narrow AI in use in internet searches, customer targeting applications, and in predictive analytics. But AI has much greater capability that will merge into every aspect of our lives in the future. Increasingly devices will learn more about us, provide an ever-increasing range of support and take on more of our tasks. We […]

What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future

What jobs will still be around in 20 years? Read this to prepare your future

The robots are coming, the robots are coming!

Regular reports warn us that an automation apocalypse is nigh. In January, a McKinsey & Company study found that about 30% of tasks in 60% of occupations could be computerized and last year, the Bank of England’s chief economist said that 80m US and 15m UK jobs might be taken over by robots .

Of course, not all jobs are created equally. In 2013, a highly cited study by Oxford University academics called The Future of Employment examined 702 common occupations and found that some jobs – telemarketers, tax preparers and sports referees […]

job losses due to automation

job losses due to automation

Thirteen years ago, two prominent U.S. economists wrote that driverless cars couldn’t execute a left turn against oncoming traffic because too many factors were involved. Six years later, Google proved it could make fully autonomous cars, threatening the livelihoods of millions of truck and taxi drivers. Throughout much of the developed world, gainful employment is seen as almost a fundamental right. But what if, in the not-too-distant future, there won’t be enough jobs to go around? That’s what some economists think will happen as robots and artificial intelligence increasingly become capable of performing human tasks. Of course, past technological […]

Disappearance of Work: QuickTake

Thirteen years ago, two prominent U.S. economists wrote that driverless cars couldn’t execute a left turn against oncoming traffic because too many factors were involved. Six years later, Google proved it could make fully autonomous cars, threatening the livelihoods of millions of truck and taxi drivers. Throughout much of the developed world, gainful employment is seen as almost a fundamental right. But what if, in the not-too-distant future, there won’t be enough jobs to go around? That’s what some economists think will happen as robots and artificial intelligence increasingly become capable of performing human tasks. Of course, past technological […]

Marching to Dystopia

(photo by helran) It wasn’t that long ago (October 2016) that federal Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau got into trouble when he said that Canadian youth need to “get used to” job churn — the crappy, short-term contract jobs with low pay and no benefits that are the hallmark of the “precariat” future. “We have to accept that,” Morneau pontificated.

Only days later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was heckled by participants at the Young Workers’ Summit organized by the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa. Several young people stood and turned their backs on Trudeau, a sign of their frustration over […]

Links and quotes for June 16, 2017: Amazon’s business model, Musk on Mars, AI lawyers, and more

Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works) — a16z

Amazon is buying more than groceries with Whole Foods: it’s also getting more than 400 stores to use as delivery hubs — Recode Amazon’s $14 billion deal for Whole Foods gives it more than just groceries. It also gets it crucial real estate it needs to accelerate its delivery operations. Amazon took a big leap into the grocery industry when it announced its intention to buy Whole Foods for $14 billion. But the deal gives Jeff Bezos something else he craves: More than 400 brick-and-mortar stores that […]

The Robot Takeover Is Greatly Exaggerated

The Robot Takeover Is Greatly Exaggerated

There’s lots of fretting these days that automation will displace huge numbers of workers. It makes sense to be worried. Although adoption of machines in the past didn’t make human labor obsolete, there’s no guarantee that future technology will work the same. Maybe this is an issue in the long-term, but for now at least automation probably isn’t taking away many jobs.

To hear me confidently declare that may come as a surprise to some, given the steady flow of articles sounding the alarm about a new paper by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo. Entitled […]

When It Comes to Automation, Wall Street Needs to Learn from the Rust Belt

When It Comes to Automation, Wall Street Needs to Learn from the Rust Belt

This article was written by Devin Gharibian-Saki, Chief Solution Officer at Redwood Software.

It’s an innovative change that has already started slipping into reality: Wall Street’s corporations are waking up to the potential of automation and robotics in their workplaces. New automation software and integrations for robotics are filtering into Wall Street and, as a result, are implying a need for change in the industry. Manufacturing

Rust Belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo have already seen the effects of automation on their respective workforces. Manufacturing jobs that once inundated these cities saw robotics and automation exert robust […]

Trump’s actions “reflect the corruption of the US political system”

Trump’s actions “reflect the corruption of the US political system”

Donald Trump’s first official trip abroad to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Belgium and Italy left many politicians in Europe feeling helpless. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel says the West has become smaller. Are we entering a new era of transatlantic relations?

We are definitely in a new era, although the US has been less of a reliable partner for years now. It invaded Iraq in 2003. It created, together with the UK and France, the war in Libya in 2011. Along with Saudi Arabia, it began contributing to the destabilisation of Syria in 2011. It’s the country that triggered the 2008 […]