Tag: software

Legal automation spells relief for lower-income Americans, hard times for lawyers

Legal automation spells relief for lower-income Americans, hard times for lawyers

Robots that help contest small fines could signal a move towards ‘fewer lawyers’ and ‘more justice.’

“Here’s the dirty little secret about automation: it’s easier to build a robot to replace a junior attorney than to replace a journeyman electrician.”

That’s Mark Mills, noting that it’s white-collar jobs that may be the next casualties of automation . “Instead of creative destruction coming to factories and farms, it’s sweeping through city centers and taking white-collar jobs.” White-collar workers used to think they were safe from automation while lesser breeds suffered unemployment. But now they’re on the front lines.That’s certainly the case […]

Students at Konkuk University in eastern Seoul test a 3-D printer at the school’s recently opened “Smart Factory” lab. [KONKUK UNIVERSITY] Adidas’ Speedfactory, with its robots and 3-D printers, is expected to create 160 jobs, according to the sportswear company, compared to a thousand or more jobs created at a typical shoe making facility in Asia.

Hanwha Techwin’s new factory in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, with machines that run 24 hours, can operate with half the workforce of its other factories, the company said.

With these statistics, it’s no wonder people believe the advent of smart factories could mean the loss of […]

Jobs supporting middle-class living will lag others over next 5 years

Jobs supporting middle-class living will lag others over next 5 years

New data from Careerbuilder.com suggests low-wage jobs will grow faster than ‘middle-wage’ and ‘high-wage’ jobs over the next five years. USA TODAY

Low-wage jobs are expected to grow the fastest over the next five years while occupations that support a middle-class living will lag, according to a new CareerBuillder survey.

Technology and globalization will continue to reshape the labor market, paring some middle-wage factory and office jobs in particular.All told, low-wage jobs are projected to increase by 3 million, or 5.57%, through 2022. High-wage jobs will increase by 2.7 million, or 5.1%, and middle-wage payrolls will grow by 2.2 million, or […]

Robots Making Humans More Efficient, Opening Up New Jobs

Robots Making Humans More Efficient, Opening Up New Jobs

SAM, the Semi-Automated Mason, can be seen on YouTube laying bricks alongside human masons. While SAM can, according to contractors, lay around 2,000 bricks a day compared to an average of 600 to 700 for a human mason, the video illustrates a key point missed by many: It shows human workers programmming SAM and providing it the bricks and mud and following behind cleaning up after it. In other words, SAM, produced by Construction Robotics, isn’t replacing masons, it is making them more efficient and saving their backs.

A year ago, Rick Cohen, the founder of Symbotic LLC, which develops […]

What you should know about AI

What you should know about AI

Artificial intelligence seems to be nearly everywhere these days, yet most people have little understanding of AI technology, its capabilities and its limitations.

Despite evocative names like “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning” and “neural networks,” such technologies have little to do with human thought or intelligence. Rather, they are alternative ways of programming computers, using vast amounts of data to train computers to perform a task. The power of these methods is that they are increasingly proving useful for tasks that have been challenging for conventional software development approaches.

The commercial use of AI had a bit of a false start nearly […]

The future technology skills that will keep you in work

The future technology skills that will keep you in work

Skills gap The world of tech has always been fast moving, but things have accelerated of late and we’re heading ever closer to another skills gap.

As new technologies and delivery mediums co-exist – at least for now – with legacy and old-world processes and techniques, it becomes increasingly hard for IT professionals to keep their skill set relevant to both the demands of today and tomorrow.

Absolutely, some legacy skills will transition into the new world, although while some may be quite different to what we recognise today, but new skills will also be required.Here’s our run down of the […]

India to ban autonomous cars

India to ban autonomous cars

India, the world’s second-most populous country, has announced it will make autonomous cars illegal after an edict from the government last week.

As the rest of the world is going troppo for autonomous driving technology, with car makers and tech companies spending billions of dollars to get an edge, and governments re-writing road regulations to suit, India has a planted a big stop-sign in front of self-driving cars.

“We won’t allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this,” Nitin Gadkari, India’s transport minister, stated at a press conference reported by the Hindustan Times .The advent of robotics and […]

Time to rethink our perspective on jobs and technology

Time to rethink our perspective on jobs and technology

Is it only the export of jobs that has led to unemployment or are we entering a brave new world of technology steadily eroding once secure foundations of employment?

Technology and jobs, whither goest thou?

Whether in the Philippines or the United States, it is time to pause and assess the very real impact of technology’s advances on those who will lose their jobs today as the so-called “jobs of tomorrow” are created.Too often, “globalized” business leaders and macroeconomists blindly welcome every advance in productivity, while investors in turn reward news of resulting job reductions with an upward tick in share […]

Rise of the machines: investing in robotics

Rise of the machines: investing in robotics

‘The robotics industry is expected to grow as automation expands into new markets and geographies’ The technology giants of this world – Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and IBM – are throwing billions of pounds of investment into artificial intelligence, a market that analyst firm IDC projects will be worth $47 billion by 2020. But what does this mean for economies and jobs, and where are the opportunities to make money from this automation revolution?

Ed Smith, who works on the multi-asset team at Rathbones, comments, ‘The optimists’ argument has it that increasingly cheap robots will displace labour, but with […]

Predictions for what robots will do to the US workforce, ranked from certain doom to potential utopia

Predictions for what robots will do to the US workforce, ranked from certain doom to potential utopia

Do you believe AI and robots taking over jobs is, as Elon Musk recently put it , the “biggest risk that we face as a civilization?” Or mostly overblown fear-mongering? Somewhere in between?

There’s probably a research-backed prediction that supports your view. We’ve ranked them here, in order from “certain doom” to “possible utopia,” for your convenience. 1) 47% of total US employment is at “high risk” of automation within the next 10 or 20 years

Doom rating: Share Embed Link How they got there: Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, researchers at Oxford University, asked machine-learning experts to […]