Tag: software

Meet the secret ‘ghost workers’ paid to keep the internet safe

Meet the secret ‘ghost workers’ paid to keep the internet safe

Enlarge Image Ghost workers are meant to make consumers believe in the autonomous intelligence of robots, when really there’s a human workforce behind the cogs and gears. Kala, a 43-year-old mother of two, sits alone at her home office, in the corner of a tiny bedroom, and studies her laptop screen, trying to determine if what she’s reading is offensive.

Her part-time job, which she picked up as a way to feel “fruitful” between making meals and helping her kids with their homework, involves “content moderation.” As an independent contractor for UHRS, an outsourcing company run by Microsoft, she spends […]

How AI Could Help — Or Hinder — Women in the Workforce

How AI Could Help — Or Hinder — Women in the Workforce

Jacob Lund/ Shutterstock My clients often ask me if the proliferation of AI will help or hurt women in the workplace. The potential impact is significant—and if we do not act now , women will bear the brunt of the negative effects. First, employment: According to the IMF, 11% of women’s jobs are at risk of elimination from AI—a higher percentage than for jobs currently held by men. But reskilling and upskilling can flip the odds and offer new opportunities for women. Additionally, AI could widen the gender gap in the leadership pipeline. While 56% of university graduates are […]

Retailers play down job threats in stores from AI and automation

Retailers play down job threats in stores from AI and automation

Major retailers played down the threat to job in stores from artificial intelligence (AI) and automation on Thursday, Reuters reported . Several global retailers pledged more training to help staff adopt more high-value tasks as machines take over their work.

Retail is one of the largest job creators in developed economies stepping up employment opportunities. Experts predicted automation puts millions of low-skilled jobs in the sector at risk, particularly as the introduction of self-checkouts makes cashiers redundant.

“Technology can liberate people from repetitive tasks,” Barbara Martin Coppola, chief digital officer at Swedish furniture giant IKEA, told Reuters on the sidelines of […]

Retail chiefs dismiss AI job threat, promise more training

Retail chiefs dismiss AI job threat, promise more training

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Executives from major global retailers played down the threat to employment in stores from artificial intelligence and automation on Thursday and pledged more training to help staff adopt more high-value tasks as machines take over their work. FILE PHOTO: Self checkout machines are seen at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon, Switzerland December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

Retail is one of the largest employers in many developed economies and experts have predicted automation puts millions of low-skilled jobs in the sector at risk, particularly as the introduction of self-checkouts makes cashiers redundant.

“Technology can […]

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

The economy appears to be on the cusp of a third great transformation, driven by globalisation and automation. In this post, Richard Baldwin argues that the first step in thinking clearly about the future of work is to look at its historical transformations.

The future of work is a fascinating and important topic – and has been since steam power first got useful in the early 18th century. Since then, economies have struggled through two major economic transformations: when people moved from farms to factories, and when they moved from factories to offices.

Many believe that the economy is on […]

White House 2019 economic report puts a shine on AI and its meaning for the future of work: Top takeaways

White House 2019 economic report puts a shine on AI and its meaning for the future of work: Top takeaways

Policy makers are asked to worry deeply about how workers will deal with the costs of reskilling if they aren’t paid for the duration of the reskilling period or their wages aren’t enough to pay the tuition. Artificial intelligence

Donald Trump

Future of Work Jobs Machine Learning Reskilling Tech on Capitol Hill Upskilling White House This article is part of new series ➝ Tech on Capitol Hill. The White House has put a brand new shine on its artificial intelligence (AI) game devoting 42 pages of its latest annual economic […]

Will AI in digital marketing lead to marketer obsolescence?

Will AI in digital marketing lead to marketer obsolescence?

I just returned from attending several spring digital marketing conferences – Adobe Summit and Martech West. In both the art of the possible was on full display and got me thinking about whether fully-automated AI-driven digital marketing could ever be a thing, and what realistic automation goals look like.

Spurred on by conference highs and three years of ramped-up writing on AI in digital marketing, it seemed the right time to step back and ask a few questions: Is fully automated digital marketing even possible?

Will marketers wake up one day and find themselves obsolete? What should marketers […]

Robotics boom to lead to economic inequality across Southeast Asia

Robotics boom to lead to economic inequality across Southeast Asia

Author and futurist Martin Ford has warned AI adoption will not only result in job losses but economic equality.

Speaking about advances in technologies across Southeast Asia, Ford said:

"One main danger of advanced technology adoption across Southeast Asia is economic inequality and perhaps unemployment or underemployment for some groups of workers. The implications of advancing automation technology is that capital captures more income relative to labor. This means that a few very wealthy people who already own a lot of capital are likely to become even richer, while average workers who own nothing but the value of their own labor […]

In an AI future, creativity will save your job: Amber Rudd

In an AI future, creativity will save your job: Amber Rudd

The automation revolution means jobs of the future will require “human sensibilities” such as creativity and personal relationships, work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd has said.

Speaking at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, she made the case for embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in the workplace.

“Automation is driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks,” she said. “So the jobs of the future are increasingly likely to be those that need human sensibilities, with personal relationships, qualitative judgement and creativity coming to the fore.”However, Rudd conceded there will be challenges ahead in an AI future.“Globalisation is expanding the supply […]

Are Humans Becoming Obsolete in the Workforce?

Are Humans Becoming Obsolete in the Workforce?

Robotic automation and artificial intelligence have changed the face of our society. Robots have already replaced human workers on factory production lines, building everything from toy cars to real ones; and in agriculture, picking and processing nuts and grains with greater efficiency than any human labor force ever could. This wave continues, with drones, driverless cars, even AI medical diagnostics. Is there anything a human can do that a computer can’t do better, or are humans in danger of becoming obsolete?

The worry for millions of people is that they may be replaced in the workforce, either by a robot […]