Tag: Services

Why AI Will Redefine (Not Replace) Jobs

Why AI Will Redefine (Not Replace) Jobs

Artificial intelligence (AI) is cascading out of the lab and into the real world. It is being applied in many fields, from health care and warfare to creditworthiness

In business, it seems that talk of the imminent dominance of AI is inescapable. Yes, it is beginning to transform the way organizations operate in substantial ways, but there is one thing that AI cannot do: be human.

And there is tremendous value in that because the study of AI is, essentially, a study of ourselves. I like computer scientist and CEO Sebastian Thrun’s perspective on AI: “Nobody phrases it this way, […]

The AI gig economy is coming for you

The AI gig economy is coming for you

Mary Gray On Wednesday, the Guardian published an article about the realities of producing Google Assistant. Behind the “magic” of its ability to interpret 26 languages is a huge team of linguists, working as subcontractors, who must tediously label the training data for it to work. They earn low wages and are routinely forced to work unpaid overtime. Their concerns over working conditions have been repeatedly dismissed.

It’s just one story among dozens that have begun to peel back the curtain on how the artificial-intelligence industry operates. Human workers don’t just label the data that makes AI work. Sometimes humans […]

Automation isn’t about giving in to the robots

Automation isn’t about giving in to the robots

Future workplaces still need those high skill jobs credentials to make it happen Image Credit: Hugo A. Sanchez/©Gulf News We’ve all heard the warnings of an impending dystopian future.

According to Deloitte, an estimated 35 per cent of UK jobs are at high risk of automation in the next 10 to 20 years, while in the past 15 years technology already contributed to the loss of over 800,000 jobs. Market research firm Forrester predicts 6 per cent of US jobs will be lost to robots and automation by 2021, with the main losses being felt in transportation, logistics, customer services, […]

Artificial intelligence, the future of work, and inequality

Artificial intelligence, the future of work, and inequality

Figure 1: Gross Domestic Product in five countries, 1000-2015. Source: The CORE-Econ Project. Credit: Colorado State University One of the most spectacular facts of the last two centuries of economic history is the exponential growth in GDP per capita in most of the world. Figure 1 shows the rise (and the difference) in living standards for five countries since 1000 AD.

This economic progress, unprecedented in human history, would be impossible without major breakthroughs in technology. The economic historian Joel Mokyr has argued that the Enlightenment in Britain brought new ways to transfer scientific discoveries into practical tools for engineers […]

The future of work: Being a cashier is Maryland’s most common occupation, but it’s vanishing

The future of work: Being a cashier is Maryland's most common occupation, but it's vanishing

Technological advances could leave Maryland cashier’s jobless. (Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun) Lester Watson began ringing up customers some 40 years ago at a five and dime store before he landed a job at Hutzler’s, the longtime Baltimore department store. He wrote up sales tickets by hand at first, calculating how much, with taxes, a customer owed. Later, he punched numbered keys on a cash register that did the math for him.

Now, the 59-year-old cashier works at Graul’s Market in Ruxton, all but teaching a master class in customer service. As he scans product codes into what’s now […]

Cyber-Physical System Market Size & Positive Long-Term Growth Outlook 2018-2028

Cyber-Physical System Market Size & Positive Long-Term Growth Outlook 2018-2028

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on “ Cyber-Physical System Market: Will China be Able to Surpass Western Europe in Terms of Growth in the Coming Years: Global Industry Analysis (2013 – 2017) & Opportunity Assessment (2018 – 2028)” to its huge collection of research reports.

The Cyber-Physical System market report [10 Year Forecast 2018-2028] focuses on Major Leading Industry Players, providing info like company profiles, product type, application and regions, production capacity, ex-factory price, gross margin, revenue, market share and speak to info. Upstream raw materials and instrumentation and downstream demand analysis is additionally administrated. The Cyber-Physical System market […]

Where workers risk losing jobs to automation, training must start now

Where workers risk losing jobs to automation, training must start now

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Employees from the Czech Republic and Slovenia are most at risk of losing their jobs to automation, according to a new report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ). Poland, Italy and Slovakia are also considered some of the other countries where workforces are at risk of eventually losing jobs to automation.

The OECD is an international organisation geared at enhancing government policies that can lead to better opportunities and equality. Their annual report, published at the beginning of May, forms part of the OECD’s initiative to work with policymakers to bring about solutions to current […]

‘What happened to all the file clerks?’ Automation makes humans moreuseful, not less

'What happened to all the file clerks?' Automation makes humans moreuseful, not less

A nice piece on the BBC website today illustrates the fallacy behind this idea that robots will make humans useless. The piece describes the creation of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet program.

With VisiCalc’s introduction in 1979, 99% of the drudgery that accountants had to perform (or hire others to perform) in updating each cell in a spreadsheet by hand was eliminated overnight. And as a result, hundreds of thousands of accounting clerk jobs simply vanished.

Given that one of the Democratic presidential candidates is running on the fear that people will become obsolete and irrelevant to the economy, it is […]

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

robot Uncredited Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines by calling for “ taxing the robots ” of the emergent digital economy. That followed upon her previous call for a 70% top marginal income tax rate on the richest and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan for a 2% wealth tax on assets worth more than $50 million (and 3% on assets worth more than $1 billion).

By putting inequality front and center on the political agenda as the U.S. heads into the election season, Democratic politicians are trying to capture the populist zeitgeist.

The redistributionist rhetoric has some investors concerned . Ray Dalio, who […]

Hope for SA economy: Thinking ahead to Fourth Industrial Automation technologies

South Africa’s economy may be nearing the end of its slump, and could start showing stronger growth by 2021/22, says leading economist

After years of slow grow, South Africa may be over the worst, and could start seeing growth by 2021/22. This is according to leading economist Mike Schüssler, who was addressing a VIP breakfast briefing in Johannesburg last week, ahead of Africa Automation Fair and the Connected Industries Conference.

Schüssler, owner of economic consultancy economists.co.za, said the 1st quarter would likely be a disaster, with corruption and SOEs taking some time longer to sort out. Eskom’s challenges would remain a […]