Tag: robot

Preparing Education for Industry 4.0

Preparing Education for Industry 4.0

The following is an excerpt from “Towards Education 3.0: The Changing Goalposts for Education” by Chris Goldspink & Robert Kay. To download the full white paper and others in the Corwin Educator Series, click here .

Education has always been concerned with preparing children and young people with the skills and capabilities they need for a full and rewarding future. However, within this statement there exists a significant assumption: that we understand what the future will be. History has shown that as a species we are not particularly good at conceiving of futures that are radically different from what […]

America’s Finest Economists Have Been Needlessly Undermining Growth, Study Confirms

America’s Finest Economists Have Been Needlessly Undermining Growth, Study Confirms

This board could have been more decorated. For much of the past decade, America’s foremost economic thinkers have been struggling to resolve two “mysteries”:

1. Why was the prime-age labor-force participation rate (i.e., the percentage of workers ages 25 to 64 who have a job or want one) stuck so far below its precrisis level?

2. Why was wage growth tepid , even as the unemployment rate dropped near historic lows? Which is to say: If jobs were relatively plentiful, and available labor relatively scarce, then why weren’t workers feeling more emboldened to demand higher pay? Or, viewed from the other […]

Jobs at risk of automation and AI tech – How worry should we be?

Jobs at risk of automation and AI tech – How worry should we be?

Don’t get too comfortable with your job right now. In a few years, machines and algorithms could very well be replacing human workers in many industries – and it is not just F&B and production lines. Left out of the usual talk of cabbies, factory workers and salesmen being replaced are jobs in finance, legal firms, healthcare and administrators who are also at risk.

No, this isn’t another upsetting article to cause you anxiety, because we’re also here to let you know that these are still early days. Plenty can be done to ready ourselves for the inevitable shift in […]

The future of work is human, more meaningful – and female

Australians are not facing a dystopian future of rising unemployment, aimless career paths and empty offices, as some futurists claim. Quite the opposite in fact, according to a new report.

In an account that would apply to most other countries around the globe, the report’s writers argue that the “future of work is human – provided those humans use technology to their advantage to create more meaningful work”.

Making better choices about the work that Australians do and the places where they work could boost the nation’s economy by AU$36 billion (US$25 billion) a year, the report claims.Published by Deloitte, the […]

Robots might turn out to be great coworkers

Robots might turn out to be great coworkers

In this June 26, 2015, file photo, workers assemble parts next to robot arms at an auto parts manufacture factory in Dafeng city in east China’s Jiangsu province. By Noah Smith / Bloomberg Opinion

The idea that automation will drive up unemployment or drive down wages—in other words, that robots will take people’s jobs—has become almost an article of faith for many Americans.

Everyone can point to instances of automation reducing demand for certain workers. And with so-called artificial intelligence (AI) technology improving rapidly, there’s widespread worry that many humans will simply be made obsolete. News outlets are full of […]

An 8-hour work week: How’s that sound?

An 8-hour work week: How’s that sound?

Pretty darned good probably. At least to workers.

See Also: Trump: I called off the Iran strike 10 minutes before it began because I didn’t want a disproportionate response to a drone shootdown

A team of British researchers spent almost 10 years studying 71,000 working age Britons.The premise was that automation is advancing rapidly in the industrialized world, raising the spectre of jobless futures for millions. Besides paid income, jobs also provide psychological benefits from production and work satisfaction, as well as generally pleasing social interactions.But what amount of work produces the optimum mental health for workers?Researchers probed workers’ life […]

Industrial Robots Stepping in to Help Economies with Inadequate and Expensive Labor Force

Industrial Robots Stepping in to Help Economies with Inadequate and Expensive Labor Force

Ankush Yadav | The Insight Partners

Industrial robots is a gigantic industry and is radically changing since its introduction in the past decades. Industrial robots are in general referred to as robotic arms, which perform diverse motions such as up and down motion, and pick and place. Moreover, these robots can be controlled to do different functions, such as transportation, searching, assembly, targeting, and inspection. The industrial robots are mainly comprised of six fundamental elements including, end-of-arm tool, dynamic system, actuators, controller, sensor, and feedback devices.

Robotics technology has been applied to a wide variety of sectors with a […]

Does Focusing on Manufacturing Make Sense for the U.S.?

Does Focusing on Manufacturing Make Sense for the U.S.?

(Bloomberg Opinion) — As part of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a broad effort to revive and expand American manufacturing. Bloomberg Opinion columnists Karl Smith and Noah Smith met recently online to debate her proposal.Karl Smith: Noah, from what I can tell you’re a fan of Warren’s Economic Patriotism platform and you’ve written yourself in favor of industrial policy. My concerns are essentially two-fold. First, I think that given the U.S.’s strength in what we might call knowledge industries such as tech, biotech, fracking and finance, it’s going to be difficult […]

Industrial Robots Stepping in to Help Economies with Inadequate and Expensive Labor Force

Industrial Robots Stepping in to Help Economies with Inadequate and Expensive Labor Force

Ankush Yadav | The Insight Partners

Industrial robots is a gigantic industry and is radically changing since its introduction in the past decades. Industrial robots are in general referred to as robotic arms, which perform diverse motions such as up and down motion, and pick and place. Moreover, these robots can be controlled to do different functions, such as transportation, searching, assembly, targeting, and inspection. The industrial robots are mainly comprised of six fundamental elements including, end-of-arm tool, dynamic system, actuators, controller, sensor, and feedback devices.

Robotics technology has been applied to a wide variety of sectors with a […]

No, the robots won’t take our jobs, unless we let them

No, the robots won’t take our jobs, unless we let them

Tom Larter, chief executive of WithYouWithMe in Australia and New Zealand. Source: Supplied. Australia, we have a problem. The robots are coming and we’re not ready for them yet.

It’s true. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are set to automate swathes of manual tasks and, with it, eradicate the need to employ humans for those manual tasks.

But, before you get too anxious about the robot takeover, or rue the day technology disrupted our workforce, hear me out. This is not new.Technology has always shifted our workforce. Whether you’re looking at the tractor, the sewing machine, or the computer — it’s […]