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  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by junglman
    +10 +1

    UN report says robots threaten two thirds of jobs in developing countries

    In the past, the United Nations has considered the threat posed by weaponized AI, but now the body is looking at a more mundane, but still important, robot invasion. A report from the latest UN Conference on Trade and Development has outlined how the increasing use of industrial automation is impacting jobs in developing countries, and what strategies may help in overcoming the problem.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by everlost
    +32 +1

    To keep the cranberry industry in its birthplace, a farm turns to drones, data, and automation

    Keith Mann faces the same problem each year: frost. The icy condensation is detrimental to his crop in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the modern American cranberry industry. As the temperatures drop into the fall months, the owner of 150 acres of cranberry bogs throws on some layers and preps a network of sprinklers, which spray enough temperate water to keep the vines above freezing until the sun rises.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +23 +1

    Why Industry 4.0 is going to take all our jobs and why that’s okay

    Whether it’s the FitBit on your arm, a bathroom mirror with a heads-up-display, or the orchestra of smart light bulbs that you have in your home, the Internet of Things, despite its ridiculous name, is feature-creeping on the life of the average consumer. Cheaper than ever before can high-functioning internet connected devices be manufactured, thus offering entrepreneurs the proverbial “Gold Mine” of opportunity for innovation and automation. And, as is often the case with tech, the reception has been cautiously optimistic.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +25 +1

    Think your job is safe from the robo-uprising? Think again

    Digital systems are only getting smarter to the point where a modern AI could fight a traffic ticket in court or invest your money.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +48 +1

    You will love the future economy, thanks to robots and AI

    Next time you stop for gas at a self-serve pump, say hello to the robot in front of you. Its life story can tell you a lot about the robot economy roaring toward us like an EF5 tornado on the prairie.Yeah, your automated gas pump killed a lot of jobs over the years, but its biography might give you hope that the coming wave of automation driven by artificial intelligence (AI) will turn out better for almost all of us than a lot of people seem to think.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by wildcard
    +29 +1

    Automation Won't Create New Jobs Like Technology Did In The Past

    "Increased productivity leads to more wealth, cheaper goods, greater spending power and ultimately, more jobs," said the Wall Street Journal in the latest entry in the counterpoint to articles declaring the end of work. People should trust things will work out and know the weight of historic experience is on their side, although no one really explains how. Financial services companies are required to note that previous performance is no promise of future gains.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by Nelson
    +31 +1

    Robots will take our jobs – but that's good for the future of civilisation

    The next time you're standing at a busy junction, look around and count how many people you can see driving for a living. Tot them up – bus drivers, van drivers, Amazon deliverymen, Ubers, black cabs, hauliers – and you're looking at the single biggest sector of our economy. Yet, in another decade or so, almost all these men – they're mainly men – will be out of work, displaced by driverless cars and delivery drones.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by baron778
    +9 +1

    Tech: More robots to join the workforce in 2017

    Manufacturers have made it clear: The future of manufacturing will include more technology, greater automation and an increased use of collaborative robots. According to the Grand Rapids Business Journal, there are roughly 35,000 robots already being sold on an annual basis. Each year, robots become cheaper to buy and operate and their abilities to perform more detailed tasks grows exponentially with implementations including camera systems and cloud technology.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by zyery
    +32 +1

    White House: Robots may take half of our jobs, and we should embrace it

    Artificial intelligence is coming, and policymakers need to prepare the economy for it, the White House said in a report released Wednesday. The report, “Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy,” suggests the U.S. should invest in and develop AI, because it has “many benefits,” education and train Americans for the jobs of the future, and aid workers in the transition and empower them to share in future growth.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +25 +1

    There will be much less work in the future. Societies need to get ready, now

    A war on wheels has been raging in London since Uber started operating there four years ago. Traditional black cab drivers have been up in arms about the new high tech disruptor. Uber has accused London’s Mayor of siding with the black cabs and has taken legal action against Transport for London, which is planning new regulations to limit the number of private hire vehicles. In November, more than 100 Uber drivers mounted a “go slow” protest in London to put pressure on the company to pay the minimum wage.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +36 +1

    iPhone manufacturer Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker with robots

    Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant behind Apple’s iPhone and numerous other major electronics devices, aims to automate away a vast majority of its human employees, according to a report...

  • Video/Audio
    7 years ago
    by AdelleChattre
    +38 +1

    The Swan Automaton

    John Joseph Merlin

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +35 +1

    Amazon now has 45,000 robots in its warehouses

    The e-commerce giant is adding roughly 15,000 robots to its warehouses each year.

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +15 +1

    Fully automated luxury communism

    At a time when robots crowd factory lines, algorithms steer cars and smart screens litter the checkout aisles, automation is the new spectre. The robots, they say, are coming for our jobs. Let them, reply the luxury communists. Located on the futurist left end of the political spectrum, fully automated luxury communism (FALC) aims to embrace automation to its fullest extent. The term may seem oxymoronic, but that’s part of the point: anything labeled luxury communism is going to be hard to ignore.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +6 +1

    Life Insurance Company is Replacing Human Employees With AI

    Japanese life insurance company Fukoku Mutual is replacing 34 employees with AI derived from IBM's Watson. Automation is securing its place now even outside of the manufacturing sector. While not all jobs are at risk of machine replacement, that list seems to be growing smaller.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +35 +1

    Prominent Scientists Attribute Job Loss To Automation, Not Foreigners

    For decades, it was practically considered conventional wisdom that foreigners are the cause for so many jobs lost in industrialized countries. It didn’t matter if it was jobs getting shipped overseas or foreigners migrating to developed nations, it was their fault that employment was being taken away. However, this might not be the entire story as even prominent scientists are now saying that automation might play a bigger role in job loss than anything else.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by Apolatia
    +23 +1

    How Electric Vehicles Could End Car Ownership as We Know It

    If I say “personal electric vehicle,” you might think “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” or maybe “exploding hoverboards.” You don’t think global transportation revolution. But in the past few years, with the convergence of better battery technology, lighter materials and smaller, more powerful electric motors, entirely new kinds of transportation have bloomed. The electric powertrain, unlike that of the internal combustion engine, scales...

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ppp
    +10 +1

    Instead of immigrants, automation may take away more jobs

    Donald Trump has been crowing as companies including Ford renounce plans to move factories to Mexico. But the main beneficiaries of this shift back to the US aren't saying much by way of celebration -- industrial robots don't tend to speak. While globalisation's detractors blame countries such as China and Mexico for stealing the factory jobs of the West, experts point to less obvious culprits which are harder to scapegoat and to overcome in an interconnected economy with complex...

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +20 +1

    It’s Either Basic Income or Chaos

    Pay it forward or suffer the payback. Basic income has been a pretty hot button topic recently. Forbes says it could help our society’s productivity. The Guardian says it’s an absolute necessity. The New Economy calls it a socialist fairytale. I say it’s either basic income or total and utter, scorched earth, death match for drinking water, cannibalistic chaos.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by zritic
    +17 +1

    These six-wheeled robots are about to start delivering food in the US

    A small number of Americans will soon be able to have food and other goods delivered to them by an adorable semi-autonomous robot. Starship Technologies announced the first two commercial partnerships for its ground-based delivery robots in the US today — one with DoorDash in Redwood City, California, and one with Postmates in Washington, DC. The commercial trials will see these services start making deliveries in the coming weeks using Starship’s six-wheeled robots within a four-mile-wide test area in each city.