Tag: robot

Human impact: How machine learning is already a force for good

Human impact: How machine learning is already a force for good

Despite the concerns around artificial intelligence and machine learning, the benefits seemingly outweigh the negatives.

There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a new industrial revolution – a digital technological upheaval that will have an enduring effect on all our lives, driven in part by the rise of machine learning.

It is said that the current revolution in robotics, machine learning and automation is accelerating technological change at 10x the rate of that seen in at the turn of the 20 th Century, with 300x the scope. Our last revolution enabled the production of machines that mechanised […]

Productivity boost? Robots break new ground in the construction industry

Productivity boost? Robots break new ground in the construction industry

Robots have moved into factories, warehouses, stores and even our homes. Now they’re heading to a construction site near you. Tech startups are developing self-driving bulldozers, drones to inspect work sites and robot bricklayers. (March 19) AP SAN FRANCISCO — As a teenager working for his dad’s construction business, Noah Ready-Campbell dreamed that robots could take over the dirty, tedious parts of his job, such as digging and leveling soil for building projects.

Now the former Google engineer is turning that dream into a reality with Built Robotics, a startup that’s developing technology to allow bulldozers, excavators and other construction […]

Martin Gilbert: ‘The technology revolution will have radical effects on business and society’

Martin Gilbert: ‘The technology revolution will have radical effects on business and society’

Genetic manipulation and DNA modification concept. Technology: friend or foe? That question is increasingly being asked as the pace of technological development accelerates.

It’s the speed of change that provokes unease; technology has been around since the first caveman crafted an implement for himself out of flint.

Today, when state-of-the-art hi-tech gadgets are almost obsolete by the time they reach a mass market and serious commentators are debating whether robots will gain mastery over humans, there is a danger of technology becoming demonised.There’s no valid reason for that. Technology has always been a driver of improvement. Around the time my colleagues […]

Supply Chain News: DC Embracing Autonomous Mobile Robots – but Impact on Jobs is Minimal If Any

Supply Chain News: DC Embracing Autonomous Mobile Robots – but Impact on Jobs is Minimal If Any

A few weeks back, SCDigest ran a video discussion between editor Dan Gilmore and Gartner analyst Dwight Klappich on Klappich’s prediction that so-called autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) would soon make a big impact on distribution operations. (See Gartner’s Dwight Klappich on Mobile Robots in the DC .)
What are AMRs? There are actually a number of categories of such robots, from those that are basically smart automated guided vehicles that putaway, select and/or move full pallets, to smaller AMRs that are used to support workers in piece picking. In late 2017, Garner predicted that "AMRs will transform warehouse operations […]

Digital change expected to lose and create many jobs

Digital transformation, including automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to impact many current jobs and the income of many New Zealanders, a high-powered national tech leaders group says.

It is predicted that artificial intelligence and automation alone, will quickly change both the number of jobs and types of available employment.

Tech leaders from some of New Zealand’s largest businesses and organisations have met with Minister of Government Digital Services Clare Curran to discuss how Kiwis can best prepare for the imminent digital disruption of work.At the forefront of technology change, the Techleaders executive has insight to its rapidly evolving impact […]

Robots won’t steal your job but they could shrink your pay

Robots won’t steal your job but they could shrink your pay

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz was eager to strike an optimistic tone when he spoke recently to Queen’s University students and teachers about the future of work.

From the internal combustion engine to self-driving cars, disruptive technologies have always created more wealth and more jobs than they destroyed, he assured his audience in a speech last week.

The classic example of this phenomenon is agriculture. At the time of Confederation, roughly half of Canadians worked on the farm. That fell to one third in the 1920s, 15 per cent in the 1950s and finally to just 2 per cent today. […]

Skilled Jobs Go Begging Now, But Thinking Machines Are Coming

Skilled Jobs Go Begging Now, But Thinking Machines Are Coming

[IS] Opinions

Consider it as the work dichotomy.

There is a shortage in the millions for skilled labor jobs in the United States. The country is desperate for men and women who drive trucks, operate machines, weld, wield hammers — or can fill skilled jobs in dozens of categories from bulldozer operator to utility lineman.Bill Hillman, chief executive officer of the National Utility Contractors Association, the organization that represents contractors (people who do everything, from replacing electricity poles to working down manholes to operating heavy equipment), says getting help is a major problem for his members. So they are setting up […]

Hrdy: A Response to ‘Innovation Kills Jobs’

Last week I posted a discussion of Prof. Hrdy’s intriguing new article on Technological Un/employment. Prof. Hrdy has now provided a short response that basically explains how I took a portion of her article (automation killing jobs) while ignoring other aspects of the 79-page article (e.g., many positive benefits of innovation, including job creation). – DC

by Prof. Camilla Hrdy

I am so honored that you found my article worth a post on Patently-O. In the nature of academic discussion and in good fun, I would like to briefly respond. (And please do feel free to post this).First, I really […]

Robots aren’t stealing jobs, they’re taking our money

Robots aren’t stealing jobs, they’re taking our money

Getty Images Automation has actually created more jobs than it has eliminated over the past 50 years, according to a recent economic analysis by The Brookings Institution, which looked at the economies of 28 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

While acknowledging that some industries have experienced a decrease in jobs, those losses have been offset by an increase in productivity and consumer spending. Researchers found that since 1970, employment opportunities have increased by 6 percent.

There is still a downside to more robots creeping into the workforce, however: compensation. Researchers found that while overall economic […]

Watch: Tucker Carlson Examines the Male Wage Crisis in ‘Men in America’ Segment — ‘Washington Is Not Worried at All About This’

Watch: Tucker Carlson Examines the Male Wage Crisis in ‘Men in America’ Segment — ‘Washington Is Not Worried at All About This’

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson warned of the effects of deepening male unemployment on American society, which he argued has been ignored by policymakers in Washington, D.C.

According to Carlson, while much focus has been given to the gender-pay gap, the unintended consequences, like the impact it has on the American family structure, aren’t realized nor addressed.

Transcript as follows: Well, they’re invisible in Washington. Uncounted by the official unemployment numbers you hear on television, and yet they’re everywhere – Americans who have dropped out of the workforce, workers who don’t work. An ever-increasing […]