Tag: Services

Work in an automated future

Disruptive technologies are now dictating our future, as new innovations increasingly blur the lines between physical, digital and biological realms. Robots are already in our operating rooms and fast-food restaurants; we can now use 3D imaging and stem-cell extraction to grow human bones from a patient’s own cells; and 3D printing is creating a circular economy in which we can use and then reuse raw materials.

This tsunami of technological innovation will continue to change profoundly how we live and work, and how our societies operate. In what is now called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, technologies that are coming of […]

To Fix Employment, Fix Automation–The Real Job Killer Of Our Age

President Trump likes to blame trade, immigration, and over-regulation for job losses in the American heartland. But that’s generally not how economists see it. They say machines are a more important reason why companies don’t employ people like they used to. In several industries, like steel, industrial output is as high as it’s always been. It’s just that manufacturers need less labor to do the work. “Almost 88 percent of job losses in manufacturing in recent years can be attributable to productivity growth,” one recent study by economists at Ball State University said.

If it’s true that automation is more […]

In the Automation Debate, Don’t Forget the Job Multiplier Effect

In the Automation Debate, Don’t Forget the Job Multiplier Effect

Emsi Senior Economist/Co-Founder In his 1950s satire Player Piano , author Kurt Vonnegut describes a dark dystopia where automation has led to a world of meager consumption and desperate idleness. The vision of workers displaced by machines predates this though, and is perhaps most associated with the 19 th century Luddite movement where workers sabotaged machinery for fear of losing jobs. In economic thought, the prospect of labor-replacing technology has a still much longer history.

The opinion of most economists has been that “Luddite fears” are misplaced. New technology is economically synonymous with increased efficiency, new and cheaper products, […]

To Fix Employment, Fix Automation—The Real Job Killer Of Our Age

To Fix Employment, Fix Automation—The Real Job Killer Of Our Age

Even if a job can’t be fully automated, 60% of jobs could have 30% of their tasks automated. President Trump likes to blame trade, immigration, and over-regulation for job losses in the American heartland. But that’s generally not how economists see it. They say machines are a more important reason why companies don’t employ people like they used to. In several industries, like steel, industrial output is as high as it’s always been . It’s just that manufacturers need less labor to do the work. "Almost 88 percent of job losses in manufacturing in recent years can be attributable […]

Work in an Automated Future

Work in an Automated Future

LONDON – Disruptive technologies are now dictating our future, as new innovations increasingly blur the lines between physical, digital, and biological realms. Robots are already in our operating rooms and fast-food restaurants; we can now use 3D imaging and stem-cell extraction to grow human bones from a patient’s own cells; and 3D printing is creating a circular economy in which we can use and then reuse raw materials.

This tsunami of technological innovation will continue to change profoundly how we live and work, and how our societies operate. In what is now called the Fourth Industrial Revolution , technologies that […]

Leonid Bershidsky: The latest bad idea from France: Tax those darned job-stealing … robots?

Leonid Bershidsky: The latest bad idea from France: Tax those darned job-stealing … robots?

The ideas of Benoit Hamon, the surprise front-runner in France’s presidential primaries of the Socialist Party, are far to the left of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and even the U.K. Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn. This, of course, is the era of the expanding Overton Window, with radical ideas bursting into the mainstream. One Hamon proposal in particular, however, should never make it: a tax on robots, based on the premise that their proliferation is bad for human employment.

Hamon’s most discussed proposal is a US$805 (750 euro) monthly universal basic income for the French. It doesn’t make much sense, primarily […]

Employment: IBM would have a dual speech in the United States

Employment: IBM would have a dual speech in the United States

IBM is embroiled with Donald Trump on employment, but continues to lay off and relocate at all costs. Here is the conclusion of a Bloomberg survey devoted to Big Blue and its circumvolutions on employment since the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

On the one hand, IBM has decided to recruit 25,000 employees over 4 years, in the wake of Donald Trump’s desire to give more jobs to American citizens. Last November, IBM completed its third wave of dismissal of the year according to employees contacted by the agency. These sources quantify in […]

Why a French pol’s tax on robots is a bad idea

Why a French pol's tax on robots is a bad idea

(c) 2017, Bloomberg View.

The ideas of Benoit Hamon, the surprise front-runner in the presidential primaries of the Socialist Party, are far to the left of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and even the U.K. Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn. This, of course, is the era of the expanding Overton Window, with radical ideas bursting into the mainstream. One Hamon proposal in particular, however, should never make it: A tax on robots, based on the premise that their proliferation is bad for human employment.

Hamon’s most discussed proposal is a $805 (750 euro) monthly universal basic income for the French. It doesn’t make […]

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

Half of work activities could be automated by 2055

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 other researchers […]

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 […]