Tag: software

How artificial intelligence can define not destroy the future of work

How artificial intelligence can define not destroy the future of work

Artificial intelligence is going to change the work of millions, but it doesn’t have to mean the robot-led devastation that many are fearing. Shutterstock.com by Daniel Darling

Work is a defining feature of our civilisation. We spend more time in our jobs than any other activity and the spoils of our labour provide us the means to survive. It gives identity, status and purpose.

So we can be forgiven if we get nervous when our jobs are threatened. And there has never been a clearer threat than increasing automation through robotics and AI. I am of the camp that ultimately, in […]

Transportation, Sales & Retail Jobs ‘To Disappear’ As Robots Take Over

Transportation, Sales & Retail Jobs ‘To Disappear’ As Robots Take Over

Automation and e-commerce are set to phase out 80 percent of transportation and warehousing jobs and 63 percent of sales employment, says Oxford University

Roughly 80 percent of jobs in transportation, warehousing and logistics and 63 percent in sales are likely to disappear due to automation , with retail employment also at a high level of risk, according to Oxford University researchers.

In a study focusing on the impact of automation on e-commerce and the wider wholesale and retail sector, the university’s Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment found the impact of digital commerce systems was only beginning to be […]

Robot technology could spur growth

Robot technology could spur growth

Shadow minister for employment services Ed Husic says there is a large cohort of workers who are worried about their future. Dean Sewell/Oculi Photos by Mark Eggleton

This content is produced by The Australian Financial Review in commercial partnership with the Australian Computer Society.

Depending on who you believe, technology is going to automate and destroy more than 50 per cent of all jobs or it is going to usher in a new age or new wave of careers.The real answer lies somewhere in between. In fact, the things that really need to worry about their jobs are the […]

Many unprepared for the automated world to come

Many unprepared for the automated world to come

(Photo: Courtesy photo) My friend Kelly has long claimed that we have this whole unemployment thing backward. Instead of 100 percent employment, our goal should be 100 percent unemployment. Let the robots do all the work.

Ready or not, here it comes.

As I was researching the Labor Day editorial that will run tomorrow, I came across a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute that claims current technology exists to replace 49 percent of human workers with automation. And it’s not just on the assembly line. The McKinsey study identified 70 professions in which at least 90 percent of the […]

What the Industrial Revolution really tells us about the future of automation and work

What the Industrial Revolution really tells us about the future of automation and work

As automation and artificial intelligence technologies improve, many people worry about the future of work. If millions of human workers no longer have jobs, the worriers ask , what will people do, how will they provide for themselves and their families, and what changes might occur (or be needed) in order for society to adjust?

Many economists say there is no need to worry . They point to how past major transformations in work tasks and labor markets – specifically the Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19th centuries – did not lead to major social upheaval or widespread suffering […]

Turning the tide with cyber toolmakers

Turning the tide with cyber toolmakers

Ryan Ko reckons we need more cyber toolmakers Think about this. A unique malware is created every half second , but it takes companies on average 100-120 days to patch critical vulnerabilities .

Some may say the crux of the cyber-security problem is a skills shortage, while others lament the rigidity of corporations versus the abilities for cyber criminals to work in a guerrilla-style “Team of Teams.”

I agree with both schools of thought, but want to challenge deeper thinking. We cannot approach this sustainability issue in a quantitative way but must do so in a hybrid qualitative-quantitative way.We must train […]

Are we on the brink of a jobless future?

Are we on the brink of a jobless future?

MILES O’BRIEN: We’re going to get a better picture tomorrow of how strong job creation is when the monthly employment report comes out. But whatever that snapshot looks like, there are concerns about the rise of robotics and automation, and what that means for the future of the work force.

Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has been exploring that subject.

Here’s his latest report for our weekly series Making Sense. PAUL SOLMAN: In Silicon Valley, author Vivek Wadhwa says he already lives in the future. There’s his mostly driverless electric car.OK, so, your car can open the garage door and greet […]

Automation Robots Will Have Human Faces

Automation Robots Will Have Human Faces

Image: kuloser/Pixabay “Anti-Android is Anti-Human.”

Robots in science fiction generally fall into two categories: helpers and killers. Helpers are programmed to facilitate the objectives of their human companions, and are typified by characters like the garbage-compactor Wall-E, the Jetsons’ robotic maid Rosie, the Venture family’s H.E.L.P.eR bot , or droids like C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB8.

Killers—Terminators, cylons, the machines of The Matrix —are most often sentient robots that have rebelled against their human creators and seek to replace them through violent revolution and total extermination.While many fictional robots exist on a spectrum between these archetypes, the robo-killer trope […]

Toledo has nation’s highest concentration of robots in work force

Toledo has nation's highest concentration of robots in work force

Metropolitan Toledo has the highest concentration of industrial robots relative to its work force of anywhere in the country, a good-news, bad-news finding that points to the region’s strong embrace of advanced manufacturing, but also a potential sign that human labor is being replaced by machines.

As part of an upcoming report on disruptive effects of automation, the Brookings Institution set out to pinpoint where the nation’s robotic footholds have been gained. Robots install windows on a Jeep Liberty at the Toledo Assembly Plant in 2011. A recent report by the Brookings Institution indicated that Toledo has the highest concentration […]

Rise Of The Robots

Rise Of The Robots

From autonomous cars to window cleaning robots that allow you to sit back while they do the hard work, the potential of robotics continues to expand.

As we increasingly see robots enter into our private and public lives and hear dramatic projections of mass automation, it’s worth remembering that they have long been a reality in the world of manufacturing. Since the 1960s, large, industrial robots have been used in industries such as automotive, to speed up processes and relieve humans from more strenuous tasks. These gains inevitably led to growth, which in turn created more jobs.

But in an industrial […]