Tag: software

Automation and anxiety

Automation and anxiety

SITTING IN AN office in San Francisco, Igor Barani calls up some medical scans on his screen. He is the chief executive of Enlitic, one of a host of startups applying deep learning to medicine, starting with the analysis of images such as X-rays and CT scans. It is an obvious use of the technology. Deep learning is renowned for its superhuman prowess at certain forms of image recognition; there are large sets of labelled training data to crunch; and there is tremendous potential to make health care more accurate and efficient.

Dr Barani (who used to be an oncologist) […]

Re-educating Rita

Re-educating Rita

IN JULY 2011 Sebastian Thrun, who among other things is a professor at Stanford, posted a short video on YouTube, announcing that he and a colleague, Peter Norvig, were making their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course available free online. By the time the course began in October, 160,000 people in 190 countries had signed up for it. At the same time Andrew Ng, also a Stanford professor, made one of his courses, on machine learning, available free online, for which 100,000 people enrolled. Both courses ran for ten weeks. Mr Thrun’s was completed by 23,000 people; Mr Ng’s by […]

Will new technologies put us out of work? A peek into the future

Will new technologies put us out of work? A peek into the future

Over the past year, questions about how emerging technologies will impact employment have taken on a new tenor. Will robots take over our jobs? One thing is indisputable: automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will displace workers in the IT and business process outsourcing services industry.

But this is not a new trend.

+ Also on Network World: The 6 hottest new jobs in IT + Such tectonic shifts have occurred every few decades over the last two centuries. With each wave of new technology and each accompanying paradigm shift, jobs have disappeared. During the Industrial Revolution, people feared the loss […]

Rise of the robots and a jobless future

Rise of the robots and a jobless future

BY MURRAY BECOTTE

SILICON Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford paints a frightening picture in his book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Ford argues that artificial intelligence and robotics are causing a revolution that won’t be the same as the industrial revolution where as old jobs were eliminated and more were created with the new technology of the era. Ford believes that as technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary.

Computers can now work things out for themselves using trial and error to develop their own […]

Kiwi workers don’t fear ‘robot redundancy’

Kiwi workers don't fear 'robot redundancy'

"Often jobs actually consist of a set of repetitive actions that can be codified and done by a robot. This applies to many jobs currently considered high skill, like accountants, lawyers and researchers." It’s a much-discussed topic among 21st century humans: will I lose my job to a robot?

Despite countless stories in the media about the threat of "robot redundancy", a new survey has found most Kiwis don’t see machines as a workplace worry.

The Massey University study found 87.5 per cent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics or algorithms could […]

How robots will change the world

How robots will change the world

Artificial intelligence and robotic technologies could lead to mass unemployment. Our economy will need profound changes to avoid social unrest, says Simon Wilson. Will robots take over?

No – but they might steal your job. The rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), sensor development and other areas mean that robots are acquiring a range of skills – from diagnosing disease to driving cars to understanding natural language – that used to be the preserve of humans. That doesn’t mean that robots are about to become self-aware and take over, like Skynet in the Terminator films.

In real life, robots and […]

Where have all the good jobs gone?

Where have all the good jobs gone?

The good jobs are disappearing. Those that predated the digital revolution are dropping away altogether or being replaced by low-paying service jobs and other less secure employment. These include part-time jobs, freelance contracting and gig opportunities. The number of Americans working under these arrangements rose by 9.4 million from 2005 to 2015; 48 million Americans are now in low paying jobs.

This growing job shift is transformational. For employers, it offers new efficiencies and greater flexibility. Workers are cheaper and fewer can demand benefits. Employers can staff-up as needed; workers take the risks.

Momentous technological advances exert a steady and downward […]

Human Games: Can We Beat the Bots?

Human Games: Can We Beat the Bots?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are reshaping the workplace and the economy. Can humans successfully compete?

As the worldview envisioned by futurists and science fiction writers in the 1950’s and 60’s takes shape, a global economy still shaken by the Great Recession is riding the rails straight into what some call the “Second Machine Age” or “The Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Second, fourth, however you count it—the real question is whether meaningful human employment is poised to come in last. Earlier , we discussed news on the future of work presented at the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland in […]

Ironman Suits Coming To Factory Floors

Ironman Suits Coming To Factory Floors

To compete with robots, workers need lots of help. The future of manual work is an exoskeleton suit that gives its wearer superhuman powers. And it’s coming faster than you might think.

Consultants have been pessimistic about the future of employment. The World Economic Forum recently estimated more than five million jobs will be lost worldwide as middle-income, white-collar workers are made redundant by advances in artificial-intelligence software. To make matters worse, blue-collar work has been in decline for decades, a victim of globalization and automation.

Taken together, finding work in an office complex will be no more likely than getting […]

The Wrong Inequality Solution: No One Has Anything

The Wrong Inequality Solution: No One Has Anything

Robots are presented at the Robotics event Innorobo in La Plaine Saint-Denis on May 26, 2016. / AFP / ERIC PIERMONT (Photo credit should read ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images) The approach to the inequality question has typically been how to either create or redistribute wealth so that those at the bottom of the economic ladder have more. Inherent in that approach is an assumption that societies have the time and choice to lift up those without, compressing the difference between haves and have-nots.

But there’s another approach, one that we seem blindly headed for, that could largely reach a reduction in […]