Tag: manufactur

Kiwi workers don’t fear ‘robot redundancy’

Kiwi workers don't fear 'robot redundancy'

"Often jobs actually consist of a set of repetitive actions that can be codified and done by a robot. This applies to many jobs currently considered high skill, like accountants, lawyers and researchers." It’s a much-discussed topic among 21st century humans: will I lose my job to a robot?

Despite countless stories in the media about the threat of "robot redundancy", a new survey has found most Kiwis don’t see machines as a workplace worry.

The Massey University study found 87.5 per cent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics or algorithms could […]

How robots will change the world

How robots will change the world

Artificial intelligence and robotic technologies could lead to mass unemployment. Our economy will need profound changes to avoid social unrest, says Simon Wilson. Will robots take over?

No – but they might steal your job. The rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), sensor development and other areas mean that robots are acquiring a range of skills – from diagnosing disease to driving cars to understanding natural language – that used to be the preserve of humans. That doesn’t mean that robots are about to become self-aware and take over, like Skynet in the Terminator films.

In real life, robots and […]

Human Games: Can We Beat the Bots?

Human Games: Can We Beat the Bots?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are reshaping the workplace and the economy. Can humans successfully compete?

As the worldview envisioned by futurists and science fiction writers in the 1950’s and 60’s takes shape, a global economy still shaken by the Great Recession is riding the rails straight into what some call the “Second Machine Age” or “The Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Second, fourth, however you count it—the real question is whether meaningful human employment is poised to come in last. Earlier , we discussed news on the future of work presented at the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland in […]

Manufacturing jobs return to US during election year – but not quite like before

Manufacturing jobs return to US during election year – but not quite like before

An employee works on an assembly line producing automobiles at a factory in China. Photograph: China Stringer Network / Reut/Reuters When Fred Robinson moved to his cottage in 1960, it was on little more than a dirt lane surrounded by cotton fields. For 42 years, like so many others in Cleveland County, North Carolina, Robinson made his living turning that cotton into cloth, manning a weaving machine at the local Dover mill. His starting salary, in 1949, was 97 cents an hour.

In a familiar story, nearby textile mills closed – and with them went the jobs. From when Robinson’s […]

Living in a bubble: Y Combinator’s basic income study is merely a result of white unemployment

Living in a bubble: Y Combinator’s basic income study is merely a result of white unemployment

Workers arrive for a shift at the reopened Chrysler Warren Truck Assembly plant in Warren, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, June 29, 2009. Photo credit: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg via Silicon Valley’s interest in basic income is based on a false prophecy of tech destroying jobs and wouldn’t be explored if those affected weren’t mostly white

Y Combinator made an announcement last Wednesday that it would pursue a short-term, exploratory study into the concept of a ‘ basic income ,’ a no-strings-attached form of welfare that would be allotted to every citizen of a given city or country. Residents of increasingly […]

Swiss Manufacturers Cut Jobs that Sector Warns Won’t Come Back

Swiss Manufacturers Cut Jobs that Sector Warns Won't Come Back

. Visitors say views through the glass floors in Schindler’s Auckland Sky Tower elevators offer one of the most exhilarating lift experiences in the world. Zurich

But for the Swiss workers who make the elevator parts, their uncertain future might feel as dizzying as the 220-meter drop underfoot as Swiss industry accelerates job cuts to mitigate the impact of the galloping franc.

Six decades after opening, Schindler’s hometown factory in Ebikon that decades ago employed hundreds will be scaled back to under 100 employees by the end of 2017.They will focus on special orders the company said would secure the […]

Will automation destroy jobs?

Will automation destroy jobs?

MT at 50: Carl Benedikt Frey, co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, gives his expert view on the effects of automation on jobs – and the news isn’t all bad.

Carl Benedikt Frey of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford has become (with colleague Michael Osborne) the leading authority on the automation of jobs. Their methodology focuses on how reliant tasks are on human aptitudes such as social perceptiveness, persuasion, originality and manual dexterity. We asked him about the impact automation will have in the future. What will determine the pace of […]

Who Needs Factories Anyway?

Who Needs Factories Anyway?

Listening to our political leaders, you’d think everyone on the planet works in a factory. Donald Trump wants to stop China and Mexico from “taking our jobs” by preventing factories from moving there — and he’s willing to launch a trade war to do so. Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, recently claimed that a loss of 264,000 manufacturing jobs under President Obama was “a stark reminder of the failure of his policies,” as if the nearly 10 million other jobs added on Obama’s watch didn’t matter.

This obsession with factories threatens to undermine sound economic policy. […]

How the rise of the robots will affect your job

How the rise of the robots will affect your job

MT at 50: We’re heading for the fourth industrial revolution where more and more jobs will be automated – from care assistants to check-in staff. So how can we manage the march of the machines?

The residents of the Colony Club, an assisted-living home near Fort Lauderdale in Florida, are fond of Zora, the little redhead who helps them with their daily exercises, tells them a story or two, takes them on a walk, reads them the weather forecast and will even dance them the Macarena if they ask.

And she works for virtually nothing, after an initial payment of […]

Swiss manufacturers cut jobs that sector warns won’t come back

Swiss manufacturers cut jobs that sector warns won't come back

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH, June 7 (Reuters) – Visitors say views through the glass floors in Schindler’s Auckland Sky Tower elevators offer one of the most exhilarating lift experiences in the world.

But for the Swiss workers who make the elevator parts, their uncertain future might feel as dizzying as the 220-metre drop underfoot as Swiss industry accelerates job cuts to mitigate the impact of the galloping franc.Six decades after opening, Schindler’s hometown factory in Ebikon that decades ago employed hundreds will be scaled back to under 100 employees by the end of 2017.They will focus on special orders the […]