Tag: mobility

Why skills and education are the real robot battleground

Why skills and education are the real robot battleground

This has been a record-breaking year for industrial robotics, says the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) of the US.

In total, over 19,000 industrial robots worth $1 billion were sold in North America alone during the first half of 2017, the highest ever number of orders for the region. The figures reveal a one-third year-on-year increase in shipments for the first two quarters, and a 26% surge in spending.

Orders grew most in the automotive sector, which saw a 39% increase in purchases. Globally, the automotive robotics market is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.74 per […]

Robots will not lead to fewer jobs but the hollowing out of the middle class | Larry Elliott

(MENAFN Editorial) iCrowdNewswire – Aug 21, 2017 Weak wage growth could already be a sign automation creating economy in which small number of very rich employ armies of poor Throughout modern history there has been a recurrent fear that jobs will be destroyed by technology. Everybody knows the story of the Luddites, bands of workers who smashed up machinery in the textile industry in the second decade of the 19th century. The Luddites were wrong. There has been wave after wave of technological advance since the first Industrial Revolution, and yet more people are working than ever before. Jobs […]

Automation, Unemployment and Moravec’s Paradox

Automation, Unemployment and Moravec’s Paradox

Writing in the Guardian , here’s Larry Elliott on automation. The whole article is well worth a read, even if it’s too simplistic to argue (as he does) that the Luddites were wrong. Over the longish term they most certainly were. The industrial revolution paved the way for an immense improvement in living standards. But what that happy history omits is the fact that it took a while to do so, a phenomenon known as the ‘Engels pause’: In the first half of the nineteenth century, the real wage [in Britain] stagnated while output per worker expanded. The profit […]

Automation will not lead to fewer jobs – but it is hollowing out the middle class

Automation will not lead to fewer jobs – but it is hollowing out the middle class

Throughout modern history there has been a recurrent fear that jobs will be destroyed by technology. Everybody knows the story of the Luddites, bands of workers who smashed up machinery in the textile industry in the second decade of the 19th century.

The Luddites were wrong. There has been wave after wave of technological advance since the first Industrial Revolution, and yet more people are working than ever before. Jobs have certainly been destroyed. Banks, for example, no longer employ clerks to log every transaction in ledgers with quill pens. At this time of year, 150 years ago, the fields […]

Driverless cars and trucks don’t mean mass unemployment—they mean new kinds of jobs

Driverless cars and trucks don’t mean mass unemployment—they mean new kinds of jobs

As business leaders who work with scores of senior leaders across the private and public sectors, the topic of automation and its implications for workers is inescapable—and often anxiety-inducing. Understandably so. Technology and social changes are poised to reshape nearly every aspect of what and how work gets done, and by whom. When we speak and write on this topic , the audience response is usually intense and ranges from excitement to deep anxiety.

Our response to these fears is two-fold.

First, the details matter—a lot. While every industry will likely be impacted, the nature of those impacts may vary considerably. […]

Peter Harris proposes later retirement age and a right to go back to school

Peter Harris proposes later retirement age and a right to go back to school

Policy wonks have gathered in frosty Melbourne to take the nation’s economic temperature. Things could be worse, but there are plenty of risks on the horizon. Do we need to convince Australians to work for longer, and make it easier to go back to study?

It’s often said we’re living through an age of uncertainty, but what’s the biggest point of uncertainty for the Australian economy?

Our polarised and often ineffectual politics? A heavily indebted China? Ageing? The budget? Trump? Brexit?Well that’s uncertain too, Productivity Commission chair Peter Harris told the first day of the Melbourne Institute’s Economic and Social Outlook […]

If Silicon Valley is the knowledge work capital of the world, why does it have so many lousy jobs?

If Silicon Valley is the knowledge work capital of the world, why does it have so many lousy jobs?

Over the years, Silicon Valley’s tech elite – Andy Grove of Intel, Eric Schmidt of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook – have paid close attention to the writings of Peter Drucker.

And why not? Besides being celebrated by BusinessWeek as “ the man who invented management ,” Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” more than half a century ago, anticipating the prosperity and ascendance of those who would make a living with the stuff between their ears, and not with their calloused hands.

“Today the assembly line is obsolescent,” Drucker observed with remarkable foresight in “ Landmarks of Tomorrow ,” his […]

Rise of robots could cost 15 million UK jobs and will ‘break the social ladder’ as automation hits poorer workers hardest, report finds

Rise of robots could cost 15 million UK jobs and will 'break the social ladder' as automation hits poorer workers hardest, report finds

Robots and artificial intelligence will ‘break the social ladder’ and could cost up to 15 million jobs, new research has found.

A study found that the increasing automation of jobs will hit poorer workers hardest and will further set back social mobility unless urgent action is taken.

The research warns that automation could create a society in which an elite, high-skilled group dominates the higher echelon of society while a lower-skilled, low-income group is left with little opportunity to climb the social ladder.Scroll down for video Robots and artificial intelligence will ‘break the social ladder’ and could cost up to 15 […]

Jobs in the age of artificial intelligence: Here’s what you need to do to succeed

Jobs in the age of artificial intelligence: Here's what you need to do to succeed

Companies are already using or testing AI and machine-learning systems and the emergence of entire categories of new, uniquely human jobs has been identified. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more sophisticated, the threat that this automation will displace a wide number of jobs is very real. This obviously creates a distressing picture for many of us.

However, evidence shows that if technology really destroyed jobs, there would have been no work today for anyone. The technological revolution we have seen in the past 30 years has been unparalleled and exponential, and yet there are more jobs today and probably better […]

Sky Views: Why I’m backing robots over humans

Sky Views: Why I'm backing robots over humans

Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

While futurologists debate whether man or machine will triumph this century, I’m getting on with things and have already picked my side. Robot. And I’m training the machines how to win.

The betrayal of my species began with an app called Spare5. Download it to your phone and you too can turn techno-Judas.The app offers you "small, fun" tasks to do for money.This morning, for example, I identified outdoor activities. The app gave me pictures and videos; my job was to describe what was happening in them, whether it was rock climbing or cycling.Afterwards I rated […]