Tag: robot

Germany has way more industrial robots than the US, but they haven’t caused job losses

Germany has way more industrial robots than the US, but they haven’t caused job losses

The rise of the robots, coming first for our jobs, then maybe our lives, is a growing concern in today’s increasingly automated world. Just today (Oct. 10), the World Bank chief said the world is on a “crash course” to automate millions of jobs. But a recent report from Germany paints a less dramatic picture: Europe’s strongest economy and manufacturing powerhouse has quadrupled the amount of industrial robots it has installed in the last 20 years, without causing human redundancies.

In 1994, Germany installed almost two industrial robots per thousand workers, four times as many as in the US. By […]

The big lie from all political parties – jobs. What jobs?

The big lie from all political parties – jobs. What jobs?

Opinionista Steven Boykey Sidley

A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that new technologies and automation will threaten, if not destroy, over 30% of jobs in the developed world by 2030. This is not the first research paper to reach similar conclusions. Think about this for a moment – we are talking about hundreds of millions of jobs disappearing into thin air, attended by inevitable social collapse and misery. So what does that mean for SA? It means that all political parties are lying. The prospects for jobs growth are zero, and the prospects for further job losses are 100%.

The sudden […]

Commentary: Automation’s past success in milling

Commentary: Automation's past success in milling

Grain-based foods, particularly flour milling, played a key role in one of the first times automation was a force in business in the developed world. The early lead does not mean that continuing progress along the same lines will see milling and baking avoid being charged with replacing human work with machines. This is especially true even if the industry’s progress at this stage might seem minimal. Assessing such possibilities has been made urgent by the focus during the last presidential election on causes of unemployment in specific areas. Indeed, blaming unemployment on the failure of government stood as […]

The grids are all right: Robots have never and will never steal jobs

The grids are all right: Robots have never and will never steal jobs

Careers They probably are not going to allow you to live in Oscar Wilde’s work-free, creative, socialist utopia either.

On a November night in 1811, angry workers smashed textile machines in Nottingham. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened – the first such incident, on 11 March of the same year, had to be disbanded by British troops. No one managed to catch a glimpse of their elusive leader, Ned Ludd.

Unbeknownst to the protesters, they had inadvertently established a long legacy of the term “Luddite” forever being associated with fears that automation would lead to mass job […]

No Work Left to Do

No Work Left to Do

Since its founding, the United States has been a nation of work. The emergence of a strong middle class in the 20 th century—long a source of national pride—was largely due to an abundance of well-paying jobs accessible to the American masses. Millions found secure jobs that required neither highly-specialized skills nor higher education. Today, college degrees have become a prerequisite for many middle-class jobs, manufacturing has been outsourced abroad, and working-class jobs have declined. Nevertheless, the belief that all Americans should have the opportunity to find a job has held strong.

But this could all change in the near […]

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a ‘robot tax’

What would Skynet do? One San Francisco official is pushing for a 'robot tax'

If a worker loses a job to a robot, who pays the city and state tax revenue that the formerly employed worker paid in? Right now, nobody does.

That’s where the idea of a "robot tax" comes in.

In an interview with Quartz earlier this year , Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates said he believes governments should tax companies’ use of robots. It’s an idea one San Francisco politician is now trying to advance to the next level."I think automation is a good thing," San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim told CNBC’s "On the Money" in an […]

Rethinking The Robot Tax

Rethinking The Robot Tax

Last week, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced his latest plans to implement a “Robot Tax” in a bold effort to face the “challenge” of automation. This proposed tax is part of his larger plan to “urgently manage” the evolution of robotics and technology for the sake of society. And, while this may seem like a daring statement, it’s not exactly the first time it’s been proposed. A handful of other leaders around the globe, including Bill Gates and the South Korean government, have quite recently raised similar points. But when broken down, is this hostility towards the evolution of […]

How Is Automation Impacting the Job Market Right Now?

How Is Automation Impacting the Job Market Right Now?

Robots are coming to take your job. That has been a concept that the media has covered extensively , sometimes presenting a world in which automation benefits mankind, and sometimes offering up visions of what could go wrong in Terminator or Battlestar Galactica fashion.

And while robots are not yet (as far as we know) planning to rise up and overthrow humanity, visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk has expressed his fears that we are headed down that path. The Tesla CEO believes that artificial intelligence (AI), a technology key to driving automation, could start the next world war.

That type of warning […]

Corbyn’s robot tax would halt vital life-changing innovation

Corbyn’s robot tax would halt vital life-changing innovation

The idea that developers of advanced technologies are not ‘sharing the benefits with society’ is just plain wrong (Source: Getty) The fear of change is nothing new. Charlie Chaplin’s classic film Modern Times – one of the last silent films of the era – is perhaps the most famous critique of technology and its perceived impact on modern society.

When the film was produced in 1936, Chaplin wasn’t alone in his fear of how a mechanised world would change lives and, indeed, the world as he knew it.

When Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the Labour conference last week, his response to […]

100 Women: Who’s going to lose out from automation?

100 Women: Who's going to lose out from automation?

Virtual waiters and waitresses, self-service checkouts and robot orchestra conductors: love it or hate it, automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are here to stay. But will these technological advances – be it in the office or the factory – affect the working life of men and women equally?

While there is debate about the benefits of automation in the world of work, there is no escaping the fact that more robots and artificial intelligence means more jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, known as the Stem group.

In the US, home to some of the world’s largest technology firms, growth […]