Tag: Technology

Rewriting the Future of Work

Rewriting the Future of Work

Three common assumptions skew economists’ forecasts of automation’s impact on employment. Addressing each is essential to protect workers’ rights and change the fatalistic storyline of the prevailing narrative.

TORONTO – Much has been written about the “future of work,” and much of it makes for gloomy reading. Study after study predicts that automation will upend entire industries and leave millions unemployed . A 2013 paper by two Oxford professors even suggested that machines could replace 47% of jobs in the United States within “a decade or two.” JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images Conclusions like these sustain the narrative that the future will […]

Helping Workers Robot-Proof Their Careers

Helping Workers Robot-Proof Their Careers

3d rendering android robot thinking in office Automation is something that has always been scary. Oftentimes new automation technologies and advancements make the workforce uneasy because the long-term effects on their employment are unknown. We saw this during the industrial revolution at the turn of the century—lots of people were out of work as machines took over things like agriculture; but eventually the workforce adapted and found themselves in new career paths that didn’t exist before.

Now we’re seeing a new wave of automation taking over, and there is widespread fear about job loss, especially for those in low-paying jobs. […]

When It Comes to Robots Taking Jobs, Are We Asking the Right Questions?

When It Comes to Robots Taking Jobs, Are We Asking the Right Questions?

If they had feelings, you’d probably pity poor Waymo’s cars. The autonomous driving company ’s test vehicles have become an incredibly common target for vandalism, with human drivers running them off the road and other people slashing tires and flinging rocks. In the two years that they’ve been in operation, police say there have been at least 21 such incidents, reported Arizona Central late last year. That’s almost once a month.

It’s an elegant metaphor for an enduring dilemma facing technologists: People seem to fear the innovations that are not only supposed to make our lives easier, but free us […]

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work in an AI-driven Environment

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work in an AI-driven Environment

To say that artificial intelligence will take away jobs of the future is an understatement, and redundant to boot. The broader term, technology, has been doing this for centuries already, and it is merely evolving into a more streamlined avatar called AI. Why is Artificial Intelligence Considered to be a Threat to the Future of Work?

In its most basic form of process automation, artificial intelligence has already wiped out a number of different jobs. And it’s an ongoing cycle: Assembly lines made skilled workers obsolete, and they in turn were made obsolete by machines that did the job […]

Isaac Asimov’s Predictions For 2019: How Accurate Was The ‘Three Laws Of Robotics’ Creator?

Isaac Asimov's Predictions For 2019: How Accurate Was The 'Three Laws Of Robotics' Creator?

‘The Human Typewriter’ Isaac Asimov was an eminent science fiction author and humanist, and made some fairly accurate predictions about 2019 (some more than others). Biography.com On the 31st of December 1983, Isaac Asimov predicted what the world of 2019 might look like, as part of The Toronto Star ’s feature leading into the namesake year of George Orwell’s 1984 . 35 years later, with the benefit of hindsight and a new year ahead of us, Asimov’s predictions read partly as an amusing nostalgia piece (solar-space farms, anyone?), and partly as a sobering realization that we haven’t achieved quite […]

Robot warning: MILLIONS of British jobs at risk from AI – shock report

Robot warning: MILLIONS of British jobs at risk from AI – shock report

Approximately nine million jobs could be wiped out by 2030, especially those working in retail, manufacturing and business administration. According to the Department for Work and Pensions 8,820,545 jobs would be lost by the rise of artificial intelligence, as reported in the Mail Online. Ministers have said they are managing the risk of robots by creating more jobs that are less likely to be affected.

Employment minister Alok Sharma told Mail Online, while jobs that can be automated are at risk, the need for cognitive and people skills is rising.

Mr Sharma said: “Every industrial revolution has eventually resulted in more […]

Auckland 2038: Jobs, but not as we know them

Auckland 2038: Jobs, but not as we know them

It’s 2038, and Aucklanders’ lives look a bit different. Big, brash and bold, Auckland is a city in the fast lane. But how will it look in 20 years’ time? Stuff asked the experts to gaze into their crystal balls to predict the super city of 2038. In the second of our five-part series, we look at the changing job market.

Auckland’s downtown port in 2038 may look at first glance like the port of today – ships berth to unload and load, and then sail off again.

At second glance though, the port could be a metaphor for Auckland’s […]

Voices Why automation is a positive turning point for accountants

It’s a downer these days to be an accountant. Business literature overflows with ominous articles proclaiming the anticipated demise of many accounting jobs, with robotics and other automated software solutions playing the role of villain. In an era of lightning-fast machines processing traditional accounting tasks, companies are told they need fewer accountants on the payroll.

That’s good news for businesses eager to trim labor expenses, but not much of a ringing endorsement for the future of the profession. Like everything in this era of hyperbole and superficial “hot takes” on Twitter, the implications are more nuanced than robots trampling accountants.

Here’s […]

Chris Johns: Robots could liberate us to be more creative at work

Chris Johns: Robots could liberate us to be more creative at work

We should embrace technology to make our working lives more productive

Richard Hulskes, co-founder of Amsterdam-based technology company Wewolver, with a robot at the Web Summit. Photograph: Eric Luke Warnings about the threat posed by robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to all of our jobs are everywhere. Even Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has recently been minded to suggest that doctors – but not politicians – need to watch out.

The story is by now familiar: mechanisation first seriously displaced both horses and human labour in the 19th century. The pace of these changes is accelerating, with one big important new […]

Don’t worry about robots, technology can free us up to be more creative at work

Don’t worry about robots, technology can free us up to be more creative at work

All jobs have changed from a century ago and far from fearing robots and artificial intelligence, we should embrace technology to make our working lives more productive

Richard Hulskes co-founder of Amsterdam-based technology company Wewolver pictured with a robot at the Web Summit. Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times Warnings about the threat posed by robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to all of our jobs are everywhere. Even Leo Varadkar has recently been minded to suggest that doctors – but not politicians – need to watch out.

The story is by now familiar: mechanisation first seriously displaced both horses and […]