Tag: manufactur

ILR expert talks on the future of work to D.C. policymakers

ILR expert talks on the future of work to D.C. policymakers

Louis Hyman, associate professor of economic history in the ILR School, speaks to policymakers at the Rayburn House Building in Washington, D.C. Technological advancement is not new in the American economy, but it is novel that workers can achieve productivity through digital platforms outside of corporations, said Louis Hyman.

Hyman, associate professor of economic history in the ILR School and director of the Institute for Workplace Studies , spoke to policymakers in Washington, D.C., Nov. 13 in a briefing sponsored by the National History Center. The briefing focused on how technological innovation is transforming work, and how insights from the […]

Future work: why machines won’t generate mass unemployment

More than changing what jobs we do, automation is changing the way we do our jobs. AP by Andrew Charlton

Technological change has long been a source of anxiety for workers . Today, improvements in communications, robotics and machine intelligence are rekindling age-old concerns that technology will soon force millions of people out of work . But the doomsayers who claim machines will generate mass unemployment are misreading the signs.

Despite the recent spate of negative reports, the current speed at which machines are taking over human work is no faster than during past waves of technological change. The annual […]

Sleep Easy: New Workplace Tech ‘Won’t Decrease Employment’ – German Economist

Sleep Easy: New Workplace Tech 'Won't Decrease Employment' – German Economist

Annette Vorreiter decorates a dual arm robot maid by Japan’s Yaskawa Electric company during preparation of the Hanover industrial fair in Hanover, Germany, Friday, April 18, 2008 Many employees are fearful that technological advances and increasing digitalization represent a threat to their jobs; on the contrary, a German study has come to the reassuring conclusion that digitization "hasn’t decreased" unemployment and won’t do so in the near future, author Dr. Enzo Weber told Sputnik Deutschland.

The billion-dollar market in robots for industrial and service use is booming; by 2020, more than 1.7 million new industrial robots will be installed in […]

Should developing countries fear the impact of automation on jobs?

Should developing countries fear the impact of automation on jobs?

Fears of technology-induced unemployment have penetrated media headlines and policy discourse in both advanced and developing countries. A water jet harvester works rows of romaine lettuce near Soledad, California, United States, 3 May, 2017 (Photo: Reuters/Michael Fiala). In 2017, economists Carl Frey and Michael Osborne concluded that 47 per cent of jobs in the United States were at high risk of automation. A range of replications and extensions have made similar claims. The World Development Report 2016 asserts that 68.9 per cent of jobs in India are at high risk — and that number remains at 42.6 per cent […]

Will real life Blade Runners be tax collectors?

Will real life Blade Runners be tax collectors?

In 1979, an innovative two-minute TV commercial gave Britain a glimpse of the future. Choreographed to music from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, hi-tech machines built the Fiat Strada. The tagline was Handbuilt by Robots . Humans were nowhere to be seen in the Turin factory where the ad was shot, but the film crew knew where the people were: outside, on picket lines protesting the loss of their jobs.

Fast forward nearly 40 years and “ the robots are coming, they want to replace us, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them” isn’t the plot of the second […]

AI is synonymous with job automation in the minds of American workers

AI is synonymous with job automation in the minds of American workers

Artificial intelligence may well pose an existential threat to humanity. But that’s not what worries the public. What worries them is jobs.

According to a new study conducted by my team at SYZYGY, 70 percent of the American public fear that AI will have a negative impact on employment in the US. On average, Americans in work today believe that 30 percent of their work could be replaced by AI-enabled automation technology within five years. And overall, when asked about what they fear most from AI, job automation is the number one ranked fear. Fears of job automation are not […]

Crises and Automation

(The Artificial Fabrication of Arbitrary Value, Price, and Wage Across Post-Industrial, Post-Modern Capitalism)

According to Friedrich Engels, Anti-Duhring , “the only value known in economics is the value of commodities”. 1 Commodities are products produced, not for individual consumption by their producers, but products produced for general public consumption. The value of a commodity, according to Engels, is determined via comparison with other commodities, namely, “they can be…said to be equal or unequal [with other commodities], according to the quantity of [general human] labor embodied in each”. 2

As a result, for Engels, “social conditions remaining the same, two equal […]

Spotlight: Killer or savior, technology plays its two faces on employment

by Liu Tian, Mao Pengfei, Le Yanna

DA NANG, Vietnam, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — As technologies play increasingly important role in pushing forward modern economy development, debates related to technologies have never stopped since it, although created numerous jobs in new economic fields, forced many laborers to leave their posts, especially in those traditional manufacturing industries.

The paradox has been subjected to discussion for the world’s business elites who are here for the meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week and seeking answers.Nicolas Aguzin, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Asia-Pacific, said during a discussion at the APEC CEO […]

As Robots Replace Workers, What Is Happening to Employment Rates?

As Robots Replace Workers, What Is Happening to Employment Rates?

A Socibot Kiosk intercactive robot, developed by Engineered Arts. Bertrand GuayAFP/Getty

A Socibot Kiosk intercactive robot, developed by Engineered Arts. Bertrand GuayAFP/Getty

Peak coal industry employment was in 1930, when approximately 130,000 people had jobs in the coal industry. Today, as the Washington Post so memorably framed it, fewer people work in the mines than at Arby’s. Coal production, on the other hand, has continued to rise over time, from 400 million short tons in 1940 to 1.17 billion short tons by 2008.It’s not that miners have gotten superhumanly productive; it’s that machinery has replaced people.The current presidential administration frequently focuses […]

More Evidence that Humans and Machines Are Better When They Team Up

More Evidence that Humans and Machines Are Better When They Team Up

By worrying about job displacement, we might end up missing a huge opportunity for technological amplification.

Instead of just fretting about how robots and AI will eliminate jobs, we should explore new ways for humans and machines to collaborate, says Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

“I believe people and machines should not be competitors, they should be collaborators,” Rus said during her keynote at EmTech MIT 2017 , an annual event hosted by MIT Technology Review.How technology will impact employment in coming years has become a huge question for economists, policy-makers, and technologists. […]