Tag: Technology

Robots stealing human jobs isn’t the problem. This is.

Robots stealing human jobs isn't the problem. This is.

Foreign Affairs Editor Gideon Rose discusses work and life in the age of automation. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance." (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images) A 15-hour work week. That’s what influential economist John Maynard Keynes prophesied in his famous 1930 essay " Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren ," forecasting that in the next century technology would make us so productive we wouldn’t know what to do with all our free time.

This is not the future Keynes imagined.

Many higher income workers put in 50 or more hours per week, according to an NPR/Harvard/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation poll. Meanwhile, lower-income workers […]

Robots used to be advertised as job-saving technology

Robots used to be advertised as job-saving technology

At a US trade show in 2004, Fanuc, a large supplier of industrial robots, gave a seminar on how to automate factory work. “We had very few attendees,” remembers Scott Melton, a director of sales at the company.

An explanation for his company’s empty room came when he learned that another seminar—this one about outsourcing work to China—had been scheduled during the same time slot. “That room was completely full,” he says.

It didn’t take long for a marketing idea to emerge from the interest gap. There was a need, Melton says, to educate US companies that they “didn’t need to […]

Facebook, Tesla CEOs lead charge for guaranteed income: ‘I don’t think we’re going to have a choice,’ Zuckerberg says

Facebook, Tesla CEOs lead charge for guaranteed income: 'I don't think we're going to have a choice,' Zuckerberg says

WASHINGTON – Across their three presidential debates last year, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump uttered the word “jobs” 86 times – but the word “automation” never came up. And by all accounts, nothing is going to transform the American labor market more dramatically, and likely for the worse, than the increasing trend toward automation: on assembly lines, in self-driving cars , even clerical and white-collar positions once considered unthinkable for robots to occupy.

Credible projections now forecast that 40 percent of all jobs in the United States today could be eliminated by 2030, just 13 years from now, have led […]

Editorial: Robots are here (and they’re coming to take your job)

Editorial: Robots are here (and they're coming to take your job)

In 1967, a prominent Roanoke business leader spoke to the Elks Club about changes that were starting to take place in the economy. Davis Elliott assured his listeners they didn’t have to worry that automation would someday replace actual human workers.

“Never fear automation,” Elliott said, “because if world population doubles in the next 35 to 40 years, they can’t produce people fast enough to look after all the machines.” Technically, Elliott was right — because we’re now long past his 35-40-year time frame. Look what’s happening, though: We’re about to have robots rolling down sidewalks in Virginia.

This is not […]

Robocalypse Now? Central Bankers Argue Whether Automation Will Kill Jobs

Robocalypse Now? Central Bankers Argue Whether Automation Will Kill Jobs

“All the signs now point to a strengthening and broadening recovery in the euro area,” Mr. Draghi said. His comments pushed the euro to almost its highest level in a year, though it later gave up some of the gains.

But along with the optimism is a fear that the economic expansion might bypass large swaths of the population, in part because a growing number of jobs could be replaced by computers capable of learning — artificial intelligence.

Policy makers and economists conceded that they have not paid enough attention to how much technology has hurt the earning power of some […]

Automation Impacting Earnings Distribution

Automation Impacting Earnings Distribution

If your main worry over automation is losing your job, history suggests you’ll probably be just fine. After all, even a century of unprecedented technological advancement in transportation, production and communication hasn’t caused labor’s share of national income to significantly budge.

Economists David Autor and Anna Salomons reckon that’s because the primary driver of employment has actually been population growth, despite all the emphasis placed in academic circles on how machines augment human labor as well as why they will ultimately replace us anyway, Bloomberg reported.

The bigger concern, they say, is how technological advances will affect earnings distribution. Essentially, the […]

Our future prosperity depends on more automation, not less

Our future prosperity depends on more automation, not less

It seems that almost every announcement of a major technological innovation that involves the automation of a production process is accompanied by a chorus of voices from those who fear that thousands of workers will be replaced by “robots” that can operate 24-7 and don’t need coffee breaks. The spectre of this dystopian automated workerless future may stem from iconic science fiction movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey , Westworld or Terminator . However, the premise that robots will render hoards of human workers redundant is definitely at odds with the effects of major technogical developments on the labour […]

Robocalypse Now? Central Bankers Argue Whether Automation Will Kill Jobs

Robocalypse Now? Central Bankers Argue Whether Automation Will Kill Jobs

SINTRA, Portugal — The rise of robots has long been a topic for sci-fi best sellers and video games and, as of this week, a threat officially taken seriously by central bankers.

The bankers are not yet ready to buy into dystopian visions in which robots render humans superfluous. But, at an exclusive gathering at a golf resort near Lisbon, the big minds of monetary policy were seriously discussing the risk that artificial intelligence could eliminate jobs on a scale that would dwarf previous waves of technological change.

“There is no question we are in an era of people asking, ‘Is […]

Is It Possible For Automation To Impact The Job Sectors

Automation has managed to create quite a buzz in the recent times by dramatically impacting almost every aspect of our lives. With robots replacing laborers in manufacturing vehicles or systems of artificial intelligence (AI) driving cars on our behalf, this extensive concept is concerning almost all the individuals because it is simply killing the job sectors.

Which Industries are Affected the most by Automation?

According to the latest report, automation has the potential to replace factory workers, miners, travel agents and bank tellers. The truck and taxi drivers must also start worrying because the automated technology threatened 2.2 to […]

Factory workers need to worry about automation more than techies

Factory workers need to worry about automation more than techies

The trend of robots replacing workers is no more restricted to countries like Japan. It is accelerating across the globe in the field of manufacturing and production, taking away the livelihood of factory workers. NEW DELHI: Automation is emerging as a big threat to jobs. The information technology (IT) sector seems to be the worst-hit by automation. But a survey by TeamLease reveals automation is affecting the manufacturing and engineering sector the most.

Jobs in factories are the most vulnerable to automation than those in the IT companies because it’s easiest to automate manufacturing.

The trend of robots replacing workers is […]