Tag: productivity

Something like half of all jobs will likely be lost to automation in the next 20 years

Something like half of all jobs will likely be lost to automation in the next 20 years

Back to Topics Mr. Demiurge Bigwig Joined: Aug 2003 Posts: 61667 So sayeth many a science article, but this one will do.

The Future of Employment

Given the number of libertarian-leaning people that float around this board, I’m curious: from your perspective, what do you think the proper response will be to a world in which an ever increasing number of people will no longer have anything to contribute to the economy that an AI can’t do better and cheaper? Take a guess, Luddite. So sayeth many a science article, but this one will do. The Future of Employment […]

Will the ‘Rise of the Machines’ Require a Unique Human Response?

Will the ‘Rise of the Machines’ Require a Unique Human Response?

Automation anxieties have accelerated in recent years, as our increasingly smart machines are now being applied to activities requiring cognitive, physical and social capabilities that not long ago were viewed as the exclusive domain of humans. Concerns surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its long-term impact may well be in a class by themselves. Like no other technology, AI forces us to explore the very boundaries between machines and humans.

Few topics are as important as the future of work in our 21st century digital economy, given our justifiable anxieties about technological unemployment . “The economic challenge of the future will […]

Will jobs exist in 2050?

Will jobs exist in 2050?

As we develop artificial intelligence, what will happen to future jobs? Photograph: KTS Design/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF There’s no question that technology is drastically changing the way we work, but what will the job market look like by 2050? Will 40% of roles have been lost to automation – as predicted by Oxford university economists Dr Carl Frey and Dr Michael Osborne – or will there still be jobs even if the nature of work is exceptionally different from today? To address these issues, the Guardian hosted a roundtable discussion, in association with professional services firm Deloitte, which […]

The Great Unravelling: How Digitalisation will change Society

The Great Unravelling: How Digitalisation will change Society

The digitalisation of industry is a revolution. It will accelerate innovation and drive productivity. It heralds a new era and promises a future of smart manufacturing, customised products and increased coordination between supply and demand.

Some, however, are more cautious about the whole thing. While the Commission presented its strategy to digitise industry and, in essence, support the automation of production, Commissioner for Employment Marianne Thyssen stated that the industrial transition towards a digital revolution entails a “fundamental transformation of the world of work.” How she sees this transformation exactly is not clear. But her statement seems to indicate an […]

Tech Revolution But Few Jobs

Tech Revolution But Few Jobs

The digital and technology revolution has powered up internet searches, social media, smartphone apps and ecommerce over the past decade to the delight of Google, Twitter, Facebook and Apple to name but a few. But although the digital world has expanded, the exploding tech industry has not met expectations in the real world and has created surprisingly few jobs.

The giants Google Alphabet and Facebook had only 74,505 employees between them at the end of 2015, which is much less than Microsoft by about one-third, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For a clearer perspective, Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for […]

The Skills Delusion

The Skills Delusion

LONDON – Everybody agrees that better education and improved skills, for as many people as possible, is crucial to increasing productivity and living standards and to tackling rising inequality. But what if everybody is wrong?

Most economists are certain that human capital is as important to productivity growth as physical capital. And to some degree, that’s obviously true. Modern economies would not be possible without widespread literacy and numeracy: many emerging economies are held back by inadequate skills. John Andrews views the country’s civil war in the context of the Middle East’s strategic disarray, assessing how Shlomo Ben-Ami, Christopher Hill, […]

Looming threat! Automation threatens 69 per cent jobs in India, says World Bank

Looming threat! Automation threatens 69 per cent jobs in India, says World Bank

Mechanisation and technology have disrupted traditional industrial production, upended manual jobs and call time on the work that has been done by generations of families. WASHINGTON: Automation threatens 69 per cent of the jobs in India , while 77 per cent in China , according to a World Bank research which has said that technology could fundamentally disrupt the pattern of traditional economic path in developing countries.

"As we continue to encourage more investment in infrastructure to promote growth, we also have to think about the kinds of infrastructure that countries will need in the economy of the future. We […]

Two digital worlds

Two digital worlds

Much of the American election rhetoric has focused on the ongoing competitiveness and trade agreements with other countries, notably China, as well as those associated with the Trans Pacific Partnership. India and the US are on opposite sides of a digital divide — and it is not in the way you would expect. India is experiencing a digital deluge in its political and policy discourse whereas the US political and policy establishment is passing through a digital desert. This is odd because one always thinks of America as the centre of all things digital. Consider, first, developments in India. […]

Shaking hands with the robot

Shaking hands with the robot

Title: Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines Authors: Thomas H Davenport and Julia Kirby Publisher: Harper Collins Price: ₹899 An optimistic take on the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on work

Have you read a financial report by the Associated Press recently? Chances are that a non-human brain conceived and wrote it. AP — one of the biggest news agencies in the world — publishes more than 3,000 articles every quarter using an content-automation programme, Wordsmith. This ‘robot’ runs on technology from US-based big data analytics and language generation company Automated Insights.

Employment […]

Upgrading skills ‘key to mitigating impact of job automation in OECD countries’

Upgrading skills 'key to mitigating impact of job automation in OECD countries'

What impact has technological change had on job markets since the computer revolution of the 1980s, and how will machine learning and robotics impact on the future of work?

A new report from Carl Frey, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, and his colleague Thor Berger, gives a comprehensive overview of the subject of job automation as it affects OECD countries, and considers how policymakers might prepare for its potential impact.

The report for the OECD, Digitalisation, Deindustrialisation and the Future of Work , provides a systematic review of the literature examining the impact of digitalisation on […]