Tag: robot

Digital future comes with job loss, social benefit gain trade-offs

Digital future comes with job loss, social benefit gain trade-offs

Businesses are rushing to adopt artificial intelligence and embrace the Internet of Things, but the impact of new technologies will slow for consumers over the next few years. That is the opinion of futurologist professor William Webb in his latest book, “Our Digital Future.”

Webb notes that while we have been “promised flying cars, living buildings and holographic displays, we may have to be content with 140 characters, Siri and Alexa for some time to come,” he suggests.

“While digital technology has changed our lives completely, for the better and worse, with always-on connectivity and the likes of Facebook, Amazon and […]

Workers Displaced by Automation Should Try a New Job: Caregiver

Workers Displaced by Automation Should Try a New Job: Caregiver

Getty Images Sooner or later, the US will face mounting job losses due to advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Automation has emerged as a bigger threat to American jobs than globalization or immigration combined. A 2015 report from Ball State University attributed 87 percent of recent manufacturing job losses to automation. Soon enough, the number of truck and taxi drivers, postal workers, and warehouse clerks will shrink. What will the 60 percent of the population that lacks a college degree do? How will this vulnerable part of the workforce find both an income and the sense of […]

We can beat the robots – with democracy

We can beat the robots – with democracy

Sophia told ABC radio that robots deserved more rights than humans . It’s a statement that would be of concern should your mum announce it, yet disappointingly unremarkable if uttered by some right wing think-tanky person defending job automation on a panel show.

But as Sophia is a robot herself, and one of a new robot technology generation guided by artificial intelligence that’s increasing in sophistication, the words are more than a little perturbing. Sophia is the product of Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics, and her notoriety exists not merely on the basis of her interview tactics, but because the […]

Bank Is About To Sack 6000 Staff After Making $6.6 BILLION Profit

"And as we simplify, we automate processes and things move to digital channels, we will need less people and as that happens we estimate that there will be 6,000 less people needed in three years’ time", he said.

Technology has forced the company to re-evaluate its workforce, NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn – who earns a salary of $6.7 million – said on Thursday.

The bank said its statutory net profit rose to A$5.29 billion from A$352 million from the previous year when it took a one-off charge related to the sale of its British business."Having said that, we’re hiring 2,000 […]

All That Online Shopping You’re Doing? It’s Also Bringing Jobs to Inland California

All That Online Shopping You’re Doing? It’s Also Bringing Jobs to Inland California

Distribution centers are becoming more automated, but increased demand from consumers is still creating more jobs. ( Erasmo Martinez/KQED ) The unemployment rate in Santa Clara County — the heart of Silicon Valley — is 3.8 percent. The rate is even lower in other tech-focused cities in the region, such as Cupertino, Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

The tech sector is driving those jobs, from Apple to Google to Facebook.

One of the biggest areas of growth continues to be within e-commerce. E-commerce jobs have existed in Silicon Valley since the dawn of the first dot-com era, way back in the […]

Event: The Future of Work – Automation & Employment

Event: The Future of Work - Automation & Employment

The world of work is going through a revolution. But how will this revolution affect our economy and society? Some say that digitisation, artificial intelligence and robots will create more and better jobs, prosperity and more convenient services. Others argue that it will only benefit highly skilled workers, larger businesses and more affluent consumers.

The Social Situation Monitor (SSM) team has organised this research seminar to discuss the future of work. Policymakers and researchers are invited to join the panel, consider the evidence and discuss its implications.

Panel: Grace Lordan, London School of Economics and Political Science Wolfgang Dauth, University […]

New analysis says more jobs safer from automation than previously believed

New analysis says more jobs safer from automation than previously believed

Credit: pathdoc shutterstock We all want to know how many jobs will be threatened by the rise of robots and technology. You might feel vulnerable if your job is one that could be affected.

But thanks to a new report , 27% of the 160 million people in the United States labour force can breathe easier knowing their jobs are safer than they thought.

That’s 43 million living, breathing and working people in America. By extension, that’s three million Australians, nine million Brits and 27% of most advanced economy workforces.Their prospects have been re-rated in new work by a group that […]

The Future Of Work: New Underclass, Dystopian Reality? – Analysis

The Future Of Work: New Underclass, Dystopian Reality? – Analysis

The dust will take decades to settle on the key issue of precisely how much technology and artificial intelligence (AI) will displace human labour. It is clear the near future will see a sizeable proportion of jobs worldwide threatened and substituted by automation, machine learning, or both. What does this mean for national security?

By Shashi Jayakumar and Eugene Goh*

It is increasingly apparent that jobs commonly reckoned to be “safe” may in fact be candidates for an AI – Artificial Intelligence – takeover, with many knowledge workers themselves candidates for displacement. Research by McKinsey from 2015 suggests that current technologies […]

Robots are coming to a building site near you

Robots are coming to a building site near you

For years the growth lobby has argued that Australia needs to run high levels of immigration in order to alleviate so-called skills shortages and to mitigate an ageing population, despite the Department of Employment showing that Australia’s skills shortage “remains low by historical standards” and Australia’s labour underutilisation rate tracking at high levels: One factor the immigration boosters continually ignore is the risk that the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence could replace many of today’s jobs, leading to an even larger pool of underemployed and underutilised workers.

Back in July, Seek’s chief executive, Andrew Bassat, warned of an “employment […]

The Data Doesn’t Back Up That “Automation Creates Jobs” Theory

The Data Doesn’t Back Up That “Automation Creates Jobs” Theory

Fairly regularly, I receive pitches from companies talking about the benefits of automation, and how the streamlined workplace is nothing but beneficial for workers, who will be able to work faster and be happier. These companies tout that automation will “support you in becoming an innovative visionary” and “isn’t going to steal your job, it’s going to make it more fun.”

I’m a skeptic.

I’ll admit that data and stats don’t always tell the full story, but they can offer a few solid points of understanding to begin a discussion with. If we don’t turn to the facts about how automation […]