Tag: Technology

Automation For The People? Ohio Valley At High Risk For Job Losses

Automation For The People? Ohio Valley At High Risk For Job Losses

Amazon employee Andre Woodson made his way among yellow bins traveling through a vast warehouse filled with boxes and envelopes to be packed, sorted and shipped. In Amazon-speak, this is a “fulfillment center.”

“Our Jeffersonville, Indiana, fulfillment center is about 1.2 million square feet, which is equivalent to about 28 football fields,” Woodson explained.

About 2,500 people work here. But looking out across the floor it’s sometimes hard to find a human among the boxes, bins and conveyor belts. Often they’re working closely with the machinery. At a packing station an employee is surrounded by boxes and envelopes of different sizes. […]

Advocates on both sides of minimum wage fight seek common ground

Advocates on both sides of minimum wage fight seek common ground

Local business owners and advocates of raising the minimum wage are struggling to find common ground amid conflicting studies and political posturing.

“This has been a long time coming,” Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, announced before attending a Labor and Public Employees Committee’s public hearing on a bill that would increase Connecticut’s minimum wage to $15 by 2022.

It’s been roughly five years since Connecticut gradually phased in the $10.10 hourly minimum wage that’s been in effect since 2017.“This legislation … will help bring much-needed revenue back into the state economy by putting more disposable income into the pocket of […]

Robots will not take over most jobs

Robots will not take over most jobs

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Tonya Hall interviews executives, authors, and thought leaders for our sister site ZDNet, and we’re running a selection of some of her most viewed videos. The following is an edited transcript of her conversation with Byron Reese , publisher of Gigaom, author, futurist, and host of the podcast Voices in AI . To watch more of her videos, check out The Tonya Hall Show on ZDNet’s YouTube channel .

Tonya Hall: Robots will not take your job. At least that’s what my guest says, and he’s got some pretty compelling […]

Working Alongside People: Rise of the Cobots

Working Alongside People: Rise of the Cobots

Everyone’s biggest fear is the robots taking over the world. Artificial intelligence is continuously evolving and learning human behavior, and along with the rise of automation, the Terminator scenario does not seem too far-fetched.

What if, instead, they worked with us? Instead of the us or them situation, what if the situation changed to include both humans and robots? Working alongside robots does not sound too bad, does it?

This was the basic concept behind cobots. Read our research blog to find out more about what exactly a cobot is, how they work, what they do, and more. What are Cobots? […]

John Oliver’s Segment on Jobs and Automation Doesn’t Quite Get It Right

John Oliver’s Segment on Jobs and Automation Doesn’t Quite Get It Right

Photo via Wikimedia Commons The popular HBO host makes some good points, but there’s more to the story.

John Oliver tackles some wonky issues on his HBO show, Last Week Tonight. Sunday’s episode was no exception, as he examined a topic very dear to our hearts: Automation.

And Oliver’s bit certainly garnered a lot of attention, with more than 4.3 million views on the show’s YouTube channel alone. But unfortunately, Oliver didn’t quite get it right — and given the host’s incredible reach, it’s important we clarify a few things (even if my seven Twitter followers don’t have quite the same […]

Designed by Apple, built by robots

Designed by Apple, built by robots

Apple’s 13 th Annual Supplier Responsibility Report reveals a huge amount of interesting insights into how the company works, but perhaps some of the most revealing hints are those suggesting the fast-growing importance of robotics across its supply chain. Designed by Apple, built by robots

I took a birds-eye view through Apple’s report and noticed the following : “744 supplier employees earned a certification in assembly line robotics in 2018.

203 Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program participants now hold advanced robotics positions at supplier facilities.” These two nuggets of data are revealed in part of the […]

Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst

Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst

Photo: Chelsea Beck (Gizmodo)

Automation is often presented as an inexorably advancing force, whether it’s ushering in a threat to jobs or a promise of increased leisure or larger profits. We’re made to imagine the robots rising, increasingly mechanized systems of production, more streamlined modes of everyday living. But the truth is that automation technology and automated systems very often fail. And even when they do, they nonetheless frequently wind up stranded in our lives.

For every automated appliance or system that actually makes performing a task easier—dishwashers, ATMs, robotic factory arms, say—there seems to be another one—self-checkout kiosks, automated phone […]

10 jobs that won’t exist 20 years from now

10 jobs that won't exist 20 years from now

The truth is, no industry is 100% safeguarded against the influence of technology.

Some workers, such as dispatchers, are more at risk of seeing their jobs become computerised than others.

Occupations that tend to be more routine and repetitive will likely cease to exist in 20 years. Out with the old, in with the robots! These days, new technological advances happen all the time – and while some industries have flourished in the changing landscape, others have fallen prey to automation .Here’s the good news: automation isn’t necessarily synonymous with job loss . In fact, many […]

MGM Could Replace Many Employees with Robots

MGM Could Replace Many Employees with Robots

30-second summary

MGM is thinking about replacing workers with robot technology in its Las Vegas Strip properties

Its 2020 plan calls for reducing thr workforce by about 2,1000 people to save $300m in the coming years Unions and workers will likely react strongly to such a move A McKinsey and Company report estimates that by 2030, 800 million jobs will get robot replacements Robots taking over employment Many corporations are embracing the latest robotic technology. Companies can make many processes more cost- and time-efficient by using robots and other types of technology.In a lot of […]

Brendan Keenan: ‘Towns face uncertain future as march of the robots gathers pace’

Brendan Keenan: 'Towns face uncertain future as march of the robots gathers pace'

1 Attendees take smartphone photographs of humanoid robot ‘Sophia’ at Barcelona’s MWC – research has found some towns could lose almost 60pc of jobs to automation. Photo: Bloomberg A shrewd observer once noted that probably the two most successful organisations in the country are the GAA and the Tidy Towns competition. What they have in common is that they are largely volunteer-driven, and are intensely local.

Old romantic that I am, I see in this one of the last traces of the Gaelic world, a world that is not long gone in historical terms. In that world, what you were […]