Tag: Technology

Are Intelligent Machines Coming for Your Job and Your Wages?

Are Intelligent Machines Coming for Your Job and Your Wages?

This probably isn’t the next Megan Rapinoe. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer) photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS A specter haunts Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world: the specter of massive technological unemployment and, therefore, widespread immiseration.

Or at least we keep hearing it does, and we’ve been hearing it for centuries.

We keep hearing. And we keep waiting. And the specter never shows up.I doubt that it ever will. It’s certainly possible, and improving technology will continue to creatively destroy certain sectors. To use one example, the days of long-haul truck drivers might be numbered. In a recent paper in […]

Unpleasant consequences of technological changes

Unpleasant consequences of technological changes

Santosh Kumar Dash

Change is good. At least that is what we believe when it comes to technology which makes yesterday’s technology obsolete. If you have Ola/Uber, Swiggy/Zomato, Paytm/FreeCharge/PhonePe, and Flipkart/Amazon in your smartphone, life becomes easy. But such disruptive technological changes too have unpleasant effects.

First, it leads to rise in unemployment. Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph E Stiglitz believes that rapid technological changes pose bigger challenges to employment creation in short to medium-run. Low-skilled workers face biggest risks in future as firms around the globe adopt new-age technologies like automation, artificial intelligence, robots and e-commerce firms. They challenged brick […]

Jobs aren’t going anywhere

Jobs aren’t going anywhere

Photo: The Canadian Press The Fraser Institute believes the dire predictions of substantial job losses due to automation are wrong.

The Canadian public policy think-tank on Tuesday published an essay—titled Artificial Intelligence and Employment: Will History Repeat?—that examined the future of the national work force, and it indicated there will be plenty of jobs for humans.

“While some believe the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies will lead to massive unemployment, the effect will likely resemble past experiences with other new technologies,” essay author Steven Globerman said in a press release. “New jobs will emerge as businesses and workers adapt.”A […]

Robots won’t take your job. A retiring Boomer will give you theirs

Robots won't take your job. A retiring Boomer will give you theirs

This isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Media reports often paint a dire picture of technological change and automation, spawning a future world of massive job loss and less employment. And yet, a labour shortage — not a glut due to mass unemployment — looms in Canada thanks to retiring baby boomers and our aging population.

Furthermore, history suggests that when technological change alters the employment mix, the economy grows, creating new jobs and more opportunity.

For example, a study of census results for the United Kingdom since 1871 by Stewart, De and Cole notes that, despite fears of job destruction, […]

Could automation be the key to a better work/life balance?

Could automation be the key to a better work/life balance?

In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about the future of work and how automation can transform workplaces for the better. Equally, there has been a lot of dialogue about whether all the new advancements in technology could make human workers obsolete. So, what do you think? Is automation a good thing?

The Possible Impact on Jobs
Analysis from a March 2017 report by PwC about automation in the workplace, suggests that up to 30 per cent of UK jobs, 35 per cent of German jobs, and 38 per cent of US jobs could potentially […]

AI, automation unlikely to lead to mass unemployment

AI, automation unlikely to lead to mass unemployment

Despite dire predictions, history and demographics suggest that burgeoning technologies (including automation, artificial intelligence and robotization) will not lead to substantial job losses, finds a new essay series released today by Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. “While some believe the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies will lead to massive unemployment, the effect will likely resemble past experiences with other new technologies—new jobs will emerge as businesses and workers adapt,” said Steven Globerman, Fraser Institute senior fellow, contributing editor and author of the essay Artificial Intelligence and Employment: Will History Repeat?

A separate […]

Technology, Automation, and Employment: Will this Time be Different?

Technology, Automation, and Employment: Will this Time be Different?

Technology, Automation, and Employment Western societies have exhibited a continuing worry that automation, particularly automation associated with artificial intelligence, will lead to massive unemployment and the impoverishment of large segments of society. In different epochs, technological change has triggered concerns and social protests. Those concerns date back to the early stages of the industrial revolution and the use of coal-fired weaving machines to automate textile manufacturing, and they continue through to the present-day and adoption of computerized algorithms that “learn” how to automate tasks through the use of data-driven “machine learning.”

In fact, the history of automation affirms that concerns […]

Fraser Institute News Release: Artificial intelligence and other technological advancements unlikely to lead to mass unemployment

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Despite dire predictions, history and demographics suggest that burgeoning technologies (including automation, artificial intelligence and robotization) will not lead to substantial job losses, finds a new essay series released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“While some believe the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies will lead to massive unemployment, the effect will likely resemble past experiences with other new technologies—new jobs will emerge as businesses and workers adapt,” said Steven Globerman, Fraser Institute senior fellow, contributing editor and author of the essay Artificial […]

It’s Not Robots That Hurt Workers

It’s Not Robots That Hurt Workers

(Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images) Education is the job-killer lurking beneath the economy’s surface. Consider an exemplary employer making major investments in training for each of his 100 workers, even covering tuition for those who might benefit from technical courses at a local college. Say the investments have incredible returns, too—by the end of the year, each worker is twice as productive and 50 can do the work that last year required 100. That means 50 jobs have been destroyed.

Does that sound nonsensical? It should. Yet change “education” to “automation” or “technology” and you have the conventional wisdom that […]

Ethics and automation: What to do when workers are displaced

Ethics and automation: What to do when workers are displaced

As companies embrace automation and artificial intelligence, some jobs will be created or enhanced, but many more are likely to go away. What obligation do organizations have to displaced workers in such situations? Is there an ethical way for business leaders to usher their workforces through digital disruption?

Researchers wrestled with those questions recently at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Next conference . Their conclusion: Company leaders need to better understand the negative repercussions of the technologies they adopt and commit to building systems that drive economic growth and social cohesion.

Pramod Khargonekar, vice chancellor for research at University of California, Irvine, […]