Tag: manufactur

The radical future has to become a radical present. Interview with Nick Srnicek

The radical future has to become a radical present. Interview with Nick Srnicek

Jakub Dymek: What’s behind the idea of a ‘radical future’ on which you and Alex Williams just wrote a book?

Nick Srnicek*: The core argument is the idea that the left has given up on the idea of the future and we have to reclaim it. With changes to the labour market, through automation, we can start building towards something like a post-work society. We have to get rid of the centrality of work to our lives. We have to build alternatives. There are four demands. One, to push for automation – let’s automate all the drudgery and […]

Universal basic income would grow the economy PERMANENTLY, claims left-leaning think tank

Universal basic income would grow the economy PERMANENTLY, claims left-leaning think tank

Giving all Americans a guaranteed salary would boost the economy permanently, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by the Roosevelt Institute, a left-leaning think tank, looks into how a universal basic income (UBI) would impact the American economy.

In such a society, each citizen is entitled to a basic income, which would come in the form of a monthly check. That check would likely not be the person’s primary income, but it would establish a basic standard of living, and provide security for those who find themselves out of work. A new study from the Roosevelt Institute has found […]

Column: Robots won’t steal all our jobs, if employers and workers adapt

Column: Robots won’t steal all our jobs, if employers and workers adapt

Technicians build LEAP engines for jetliners at a new, highly automated General Electric (GE) factory in Lafayette, Indiana, on March 29, 2017. Photo by REUTERS/Alwyn Scott Editor’s Note: On tonight’s Making Sen$e Thursday NewsHour segment, Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-visionary Vivek Wadhwa drives me around Palo Alto in his almost-driverless car to pose the question: are we going to drive automation or will it drive us?

To MIT business school professor Paul Osterman, this raises the key economic issue of our era: meaningful jobs that pay a meaningful wage in the face of what he calls “the robot frenzy.” Meaningful work was […]

Bet on the American worker to adapt and thrive

Bet on the American worker to adapt and thrive

Fort Worth Star-Telegram "Don’t fight forces, use them."

Early 20 th century visionary and philosopher Buckminster Fuller was clear when he emphasized the course humanity could chart when it embraced change rather than oppose it.

On Labor Day, it is good to remind ourselves how clearly we have benefited from embracing technological change. Once upon a time, automation that ushered in the U.S. industrial revolution was responsible for shifting employment from agrarian to urban centers. Those that argued for remaining on the farm missed the greatest economic expansion and increase in standard of living in all of human existence. Since the […]

The Job-Stealing Robot Apocalypse May Be Worse Than Previously Thought

The Job-Stealing Robot Apocalypse May Be Worse Than Previously Thought

Last year, Amazon introduced its first Amazon Go : a brick-and-mortar convenience store that sells snacks, staples like milk and bread, pre-made meals, and meal kits. But unlike a 7-Eleven, there are no cashiers or checkout lanes in the Seattle store. Instead, the entire process is automated: sensors track the items customers take out of the store, and charge them accordingly. Amazon is also working on another convenience-store concept in which customers would order online and pick up groceries from their cars, using license-plate-reading technology, sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to help facilitate faster checkouts. It’s a revolutionary […]

COLUMN: Now is the time to focus on future Pennsylvania jobs

COLUMN: Now is the time to focus on future Pennsylvania jobs

Labor Day is a day dedicated to recognizing the social and economic achievements of American workers and their contribution to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our wonderful nation.

When the first Labor Day was celebrated in September 1882, it was at a time when American cities were the hub of industrial employment. That being said, times have changed, and Pennsylvania must change in order to be able to provide first-rate jobs for our residents.

In 2017, the American worker faces two very troubling trends: automation and the radical shift of the retail economy. Both trends threaten to leave hundreds of […]

CITI: Retail jobs will ‘vanish’ due to technology and it ‘will affect every city and region’

CITI: Retail jobs will 'vanish' due to technology and it 'will affect every city and region'

As much as 80% of retail jobs at risk from automation, Citi and University of Oxford predict.

Low-skilled jobs most at risk and will have profound effects on communities.

‘Watershed’ moment coming for retail jobs, Citi and Oxford warn. People walk by the Amazon Go brick-and-mortar grocery store without lines or checkout counters, in Seattle Washington, U.S. December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Redmond LONDON — Analysts from Citi bank and academics from Oxford are predicting seismic changes to the retail industry that could mean low-skilled jobs "vanish.""The lesson of the twentieth century has been that most jobs […]

Artificial intelligence will erode job security, say experts

Artificial intelligence will erode job security, say experts

Canada needs to build safety nets for workers losing their jobs to robots, according to report author Jobs at manufacturing plants are already being lost to robots. Experts say more will be on their way out as more jobs become automated and Ottawa must invest more in skills training to mitigate economic impacts | Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock In The Jetsons ’ world , technology has rid humanity of nuisances like housework and commuting. Instead, the cartoon family relies on its robot housekeeper and son Elroy gets to school on an automated hover pod.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation […]

Toledo has nation’s highest concentration of robots in work force

Toledo has nation's highest concentration of robots in work force

Metropolitan Toledo has the highest concentration of industrial robots relative to its work force of anywhere in the country, a good-news, bad-news finding that points to the region’s strong embrace of advanced manufacturing, but also a potential sign that human labor is being replaced by machines.

As part of an upcoming report on disruptive effects of automation, the Brookings Institution set out to pinpoint where the nation’s robotic footholds have been gained. Robots install windows on a Jeep Liberty at the Toledo Assembly Plant in 2011. A recent report by the Brookings Institution indicated that Toledo has the highest concentration […]

Sewbots Could Make 1.2M T-Shirts Annually at New Arkansas Factory

Sewbots Could Make 1.2M T-Shirts Annually at New Arkansas Factory

Tianyuan Garments Company is redefining apparel manufacturing with its newest employees—sewbots. On Friday, the Chinese clothing manufacturer announced that it will open a new garment factory in Arkansas next year, which will run primarily with the use of autonomous robots and a few human supervisors, Fast Company reported .

Once factory operations are in full swing, the 21 production lines are expected to produce 1.2 million T-shirts annually, at a total production cost that’s competitive with apparel companies using low-wage countries to manufacture garments. Tianyuan Garments Company is one of the first businesses to use the sewbots, which could advance […]