Tag: robot

Davos Highlights AI’s Massive PR Problem

Davos Highlights AI's Massive PR Problem

As business, policy, and technology leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year, the rise of populism with Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US drove discussions about the pros and cons of globalization.

While globalization has improved the living conditions of vast swaths of this planet’s population, it has also led to shifting employment patterns, as jobs leave the US for China and other low-wage countries.

However, the Davos cognoscenti believe wage inequality is only part of the problem. Hand-in-hand with globalization is the topic of automation – seen […]

Sunday Perspective: Will robots wipe out jobs?

Tech-savvy people agree that snowballing robotics, computerization and artificial intelligence will erase many routine American jobs in the coming decade — but most hope the machine revolution also will create enough fields of new work to replace the losses.

Pew Research asked 1,896 experts to predict where automation is heading. Here are a few replies.

n Webbmedia Group CEO Amy Webb: “There is a general concern that the robots are taking over. I disagree that our emerging technologies will permanently displace most of the workforce — though I’d argue that jobs will shift into other sectors. Now more than ever, an […]

#WEF2017: Job-stealing robots a concern

#WEF2017: Job-stealing robots a concern

data-reactid=”.1jmkssv98ac.1.5.1.0.3.1.1.0″> world economic forum

Panasonic’s prototype delivery robot, HOSPI, designed to serve bottled beverages and provide bus information, is pictured at a hotel near Narita International Airport in Narita Davos – Open markets and global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly machines.

And while business leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains technology can bring, they warned this week that the collateral damage to jobs needs to be addressed more seriously.From taxi drivers to healthcare professionals, technologies […]

Gwynne Dyer: Rise of the machine — why the rich are worried

Gwynne Dyer: Rise of the machine — why the rich are worried

A man works amid orange robot arms at Rapoo Technology factory in the southern Chinese industrial boomtown of Shenzhen, Aug. 21, 2015. The job market has changed greatly in the past decade, with manufacturing and administrative jobs in decline due to globalization and automation. ©Vincent Yu/AP file photo Gwynne Dyer What was striking was that Kerry didn’t have to clarify his remark for the 2,000 “global leaders” — politicians, bureaucrats, business representatives and public intellectuals — who are in the Swiss alpine town of Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). They all know what he’s talking about.

This […]

Trump wants to fight the effects of trade, but what about automation?

Trump wants to fight the effects of trade, but what about automation?

Karen Rosado made leather knives in Southbridge. President Donald Trump has spoken often about trade’s effect on US manufacturing employment but has said comparatively little about another economic force that has caused factories to shed jobs: high-tech machines and automation.

At the Hyde Group’s Southbridge factory, the amount of work that 100 employees do now would have required 180 workers more than a decade ago, said Bob Clemence, the company’s vice president of sales.

While the number of blue-collar assembly-line jobs at US factories has been dropping in huge numbers for decades, Enrico Moretti, a professor at the University of California, […]

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

Credit: Thinkstock Fears that accelerating automation is going to eat its lion’s share of jobs continue to plague corporate sectors. However, new research from McKinsey Global Institute may talk folks afflicted with automation phobias down from the ledge.

The research group says that although half of today’s work activities could be automated, it may not happen until 2055. Or 2035. Or even 2075. Where the statistic falls along the S curve depends on various factors, such as breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and economic conditions, says Michael Chui, a McKinsey Global Institute partner and an author of the report . Chuiand […]

Job losses through automation a real concern to leaders at Davos

Job losses through automation a real concern to leaders at Davos

An attendee communicate with SARA, a socially aware robot assisstant, during a presentation at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Open markets and global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly machines.

And while business leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains technology can bring, they warned this week that the collateral damage to jobs needs to be addressed more seriously.

From taxi drivers to […]

Will AI Bless Us With A 15 Hour Work-Week, Or Turn Us Into Paperclips?

Will AI Bless Us With A 15 Hour Work-Week, Or Turn Us Into Paperclips?

Francois Lenoir / Reuters With scaremongers predicting millions of job losses and an increasing divide between the haves and the have-nots, it was interesting to see the results of a recent White House report into AI. Yes, there will be job losses, but the report found that business productivity will rise, which could prompt an increase in average salaries. The benefits for the global workforce should not be ignored.

When you think of the average white-collar office job, it probably doesn’t conjure up images of a room full of whizz kids staring at glistening monitors replete with fancy graphs and […]

Davos Elites Are Increasingly Stressed About Robots Taking Your Job

Davos Elites Are Increasingly Stressed About Robots Taking Your Job

Open markets and global trade have been blamed for job losses over the last decade, but global CEOs say the real culprits are increasingly machines.

And while business leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos relish the productivity gains technology can bring, they warned this week that the collateral damage to jobs needs to be addressed more seriously .

From taxi drivers to healthcare professionals, technologies such as robotics, driverless cars, artificial intelligence and 3-D printing mean more and more types of jobs are at risk.Adidas, for example, aims to use 3-D printing in the manufacture of […]

Automation for the People: The Public, Technology and Jobs

Automation for the People: The Public, Technology and Jobs

A 2012 research brief by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee at MIT renewed an old debate over the effect of new technologies on employment levels. They argued that, counter to the prevailing belief that new technologies and automation simply shift jobs into new sectors after a period of disruption, instead rapid improvements in technology over the past decades have left some workers completely behind, a trend that will continue to accelerate as computers capabilities expand. But what does the public think? Do Americans see technological threats to employment, and have their views changed since the days when robots first […]