Tag: Technical

Yes, there are good jobs in America, but you need training

Yes, there are good jobs in America, but you need training

The most often heard economic rallying cry is the desire for “good jobs,” and that’s usually followed by a lament about the loss of traditional manufacturing and blue collar employment where people without a college degree could make a living.

A new study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce provides valuable insights about these job market assumptions. The report shows the generalizations about the economy do not tell the whole story.

“We find that there are still 30 million good jobs that do not require a Bachelor’s degree,” the report says. “These good jobs pay an average […]

Opinion: The human touch: making the most out of automation in the oil and gas industry

Opinion: The human touch: making the most out of automation in the oil and gas industry

Janette Marx You don’t need artificial intelligence (AI) to realise that robots are entering the oil and gas industry. Just the regular kind. The sector has a unique blend of need and ability to lead the way in embracing automation and stands to benefit hugely from it. However, with excitement comes fear: what does this mean for the sector’s workforce?

That fear might be exaggerated though – technology will still need the human touch and strangely it’s just that – a human touch – that companies will need to emerge as winners from the industry’s digital transformation.

Automation: a global […]

Ignore Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s War Over Killer Robots, the Real Challenge is Already Here

Ignore Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's War Over Killer Robots, the Real Challenge is Already Here

Photo: AP Tech giants Elon Musk and Mark Zuckeberg have been engaged in a very public, somewhat silly and self-indulgent battle over artificial intelligence lately. Musk has warned AI-powered robots could usher in some form of automated war to give humanity its richly deserved demise, while Zuckerberg responded by saying he is “really optimistic” it could usher a golden age of lifesaving technology.

Both have traded blows, with Zuckerberg saying the doomsaying is “pretty irresponsible,” and Musk tweeting he thinks the Facebook head just doesn’t understand the issue. The whole thing is a little eyeroll-inducing given true AI remains a […]

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 […]

Hong Kong’s automated-sushi restaurant: An attempt to not interact with any humans

Hong Kong's automated-sushi restaurant: An attempt to not interact with any humans

Workers are frequently told robots are coming for their jobs, while fast food employees are already starting to see automation creep into their places of employment. Along with kiosks popping up at McDonald’s, diners in Japan have been treated to a sushi-making robot, while in California a robot flips burgers .

So with machines on the rise in restaurants, how has it impacted the consumer dining experience? Recently, CNBC tested a sit-down restaurant in Hong Kong where automation has taken over most of the tasks usually performed by servers. The goal was to see if a meal could be consumed […]

UBI and automation could be the symbiotic solution for displaced workers

UBI and automation could be the symbiotic solution for displaced workers

As developments in artificial intelligence and robotics advance, there is going to be a severe and swift disruption of many working classes. Large swaths of laborers are going to lose their jobs, leading to unprecedented levels of unemployment.

To account for this problem, having access to basic needs should become a right, not a privilege for the non-automated classes. It should be the responsibility of the corporations that have taken away working-class jobs to grant families this right—and the best solution would be in the form of a universal basic income.

UBI, an economic proposition in which a sum of money […]

If Silicon Valley is the knowledge work capital of the world, why does it have so many lousy jobs?

If Silicon Valley is the knowledge work capital of the world, why does it have so many lousy jobs?

Over the years, Silicon Valley’s tech elite – Andy Grove of Intel, Eric Schmidt of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook – have paid close attention to the writings of Peter Drucker.

And why not? Besides being celebrated by BusinessWeek as “ the man who invented management ,” Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” more than half a century ago, anticipating the prosperity and ascendance of those who would make a living with the stuff between their ears, and not with their calloused hands.

“Today the assembly line is obsolescent,” Drucker observed with remarkable foresight in “ Landmarks of Tomorrow ,” his […]

Black muddy river: of jobs and computers

Black muddy river: of jobs and computers

While machines have come a long way and will continue to evolve, the human intervention has its own indispensable value. Photo: Reuters It is widely accepted that technology-driven automation, whether routine or “intelligent”, will lead to large shifts in employment during this century, much like the industrial revolution did in the 1800s. The industrial revolution also concurrently caused an unprecedented rise in the overall standard of living for many people, leaving them time to focus on work that was more creative. At least, that is the currently accepted version of history.

I recently watched a short, but information-packed video by […]

Come friendly robots and take our dullest jobs

Come friendly robots and take our dullest jobs

We are currently going through one of those periodic phases of “automation anxiety” when we become convinced that the robots are coming for our jobs. These fears are routinely pooh-poohed by historians and economists. The historians point out that machines have been taking away jobs since the days of Elizabeth I – who refused to grant William Lee a patent on his stocking frame on the grounds that it would take work away from those who knitted by hand. And while the economists concede that machines do indeed destroy some jobs, they point out that the increased productivity that […]

9 forces shaping the future of IT

9 forces shaping the future of IT

Credit: InfoWire.dk IT is on the precipice of unprecedented change. Every company, now in the business of technology, is experiencing glimmers of larger shifts to come: automation, decentralized technology budgets, rapid adoption of cloud-based services, and most recently, artificial intelligence as a business necessity.

Thanks to these emerging and converging trends, technology is increasingly freeing workers from routine tasks, from the warehouse to the C-suite. Massive amounts of data are being ingested in real time, as business decisions are beginning to be offloaded to machines, leaving more time to focus on planning, pursuing leads, and adopting new technologies.

IT stands at […]