Tag: productivity

The Robots Are Coming. Welcome Them

Is it time to bow to our robot overlords? Last week analysts at Morgan Stanley , MS 0.16 % using data from an Oxford University study , predicted that nearly half of U.S. jobs will be replaced by robots over the next two decades. Ouch. Maybe we should build a wall.

Cars that drive themselves? Waiters you don’t need to pay (or tip)? Self-folding clothes? Are we headed toward a post-job future? Signs are certainly there. Abundant Robotics, a company spun from the same Stanford Research Institute that brought us the mouse and networked computing, has begun testing a robot […]

Garment factories to buy into automation

Investors in Cambodia’s garment industry are increasingly purchasing modern equipment as they look to produce higher value-added products to compete in the international market and counter rising labour costs, an industry insider said yesterday.

Ly Tek Heng, operation manager at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), said rising factory worker wages were thinning margins on the production of low-value garments and footwear in the face of fierce global competition.

“If we produce low-value products while the cost of labour keeps rising, we cannot compete,” said Heng. “So, big investors are going to use more modern equipment and machinery, which lets […]

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

Container ship (Photo: Pixabay) Economic dogma asserts that free trade improves everyone’s wellbeing. For decades, both major American political parties have hailed free trade with other countries as critical to voters’ well being. But candidates in the 2016 presidential election have raised piercing questions about the benefits, with both major party nominees distancing themselves from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact with bilateral support that was seven-years-in-the-making. The Republican nominee is even proposing to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ), a signature policy of the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

Rapidly increasing […]

What about the human casualties of AI & Automation?

What about the human casualties of AI & Automation?

Analysis: With Uber looking to replace one million drivers with its self-driving vehicles, will AI really lead to mass unemployment?

Artificial Intelligence – a technology which has continually broken promises. Until now, that is.

AI technology has always been the star striker of the technology field, hugely expensive and much hyped. However, AI has never scored the big goals promised by those working on the sidelines, with a Minority Report-esque world remaining in the realms of fiction.However, no one can ignore the renewed enthusiasm that AI is today courting – companies like Salesforce, Intel and Apple are rushing to acquire AI […]

CMV: Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

CMV: Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

Hi /u/SajunBecker . I’m wrapping up my master’s degree this year and have taken a decent number of courses pertaining to labor economics and macroeconomic development. Thus, if you’d like any more detail than what I’m providing (going to try to keep things short, for everyone’s sake), please feel free to ask! 🙂

So, basically there’s a few things going on here. First, as a few others have already pointed out, we do technically have some forms of pseudo-basic income (social security, AFDC, Food Stamps, subsidized housing programs, etc. are all efforts to combat unemployment and poverty and thus efforts […]

Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

Automation will continue to increase productivity and minimize employment, but the U.S. will NEVER see anything like a basic income.

Frankly, I think we’re going to be caught between the worst of both worlds between increasing automation and decreasing jobs.

I’d bet that by the 2040’s or 50’s, most Western countries like Canada, Denmark (and maybe the U.K.) will offer some kind of basic income that covers a basic cost of living, but it will never happen in the U.S.

Before anyone says it, no, we can’t just expect people to "go into STEM" and past a certain point, you can’t further specialize or "get more credentials." These people are just toast, and will be expected to "tough it out." Maybe […]

The Shifts — Great and Small — in Workplace Automation

The Shifts — Great and Small — in Workplace Automation

Despite valid concerns and anxiety about machines displacing workers, human labor isn’t going away any time soon. Tasks that cannot be substituted by automation are generally complemented by it. There have been periodic warnings in the last two centuries that automation and new technology would wipe out large numbers of middle-class jobs.

In the early 19th century, for instance, a group of English textile artisans, known as Luddites, famously protested the automation of textile production by seeking to destroy some of the machines. A century later, concern rose again over “The Automation Jobless,” as they were called in the title […]

Workers of the Future, Unite

Workers of the Future, Unite

A utomation will undoubtedly transform the workforce, the economy, and society as a whole. Robotics, sophisticated “AI” software, and other technologies will cause lasting and profound changes in the future. But that’s no reason to ignore the problems we’re facing right now.

In fact, the best way to ensure that we have a more equitable economy tomorrow is by fighting for one today. “Reality Check”

Two recent commentaries addressed the “robot question.” One, by Don Lee, ran in the Los Angeles Times under the headline “ Reality check: Manufacturers returning to U.S. may mean jobs for robots, not people […]

Workers of the Future, Unite

Workers of the Future, Unite

Issei Kato / Reuters Automation will undoubtedly transform the workforce, the economy, and society as a whole. Robotics, sophisticated “AI” software, and other technologies will cause lasting and profound changes in the future. But that’s no reason to ignore the problems we’re facing right now.

In fact, the best way to ensure that we have a more equitable economy tomorrow is by fighting for one today.

“Reality check” Two recent commentaries addressed the “robot question.” One, by Don Lee, ran in the Los Angeles Times under the headline “ Reality check: Manufacturers returning to US may mean jobs for robots, […]

Dan O’Brien: The hopes and fears around artificial intelligence

Dan O'Brien: The hopes and fears around artificial intelligence

Partly explaining the pessimism is fear of change and the unknown. Another reason is what economists call the “lump of labour fallacy” — the idea that the number of jobs in an economy is fixed, and therefore more automation must in turn mean fewer jobs…’ (Stock picture) ‘Artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." That is how no less a figure than physicist Stephen Hawking has described the risks posed by intelligent machines capable of thought and action. Medical Coding Programs allalliedhealthschools.com Start Now! Find Medical Billing & Coding Programs. Request Info Today Work at Home […]