replacing workers with smart machines

Robots and Automation Are Coming for Human Jobs — Martin Ford Interview

I’ve posted earlier discussions with the author of Rise of the Robots before (Australia ABC radio, Sept 2015 and NPR, May 2015) but the latest has a timely dialogue about jobs and the incursion of smart machines.

The automated workplace is a huge and basic threat to the economy when the social contract of payment to workers […]

Research on Robot Garbage Collectors Has Proved the Concept Works

I reported last summer about efforts to replace human garbage collectors with robotic ones.

Things are moving along expeditiously in Sweden. As is often the case, the spin is designed to distract from eventual job destruction. The garbage project is touted as a “fun thought experiment” about the future of automation rather than a long-term scheme […]

America’s Senator Jeff Sessions: America’s Economy Needs Fewer Immigrants

Appearing on the Fox Business Network Wednesday, Senator Sessions reasserted his position that immigration must benefit the American people, not wealthy elites. He also allowed that a reduction in legal immigration would be advisable, since “There’s just not enough jobs for people today” as a result of robots, advanced software, outsourcing and immigration. He is […]

Atlas Robot’s Advanced Capability Threatens American Jobs

The video below had more than eight million views in two days, February 23-25. The reason for the interest is certainly the machine’s remarkable balance and ease of movement. “Atlas” walks over a snowy landscape outdoors and regains footing after slipping. It lifts boxes and places them on shelves. When a human moves a box […]

Humanoid Robots Are in Development for Aircraft Manufacture

Airplane production has special problems for adapting automation because of the large size of passenger aircraft that don’t fit on assembly lines. So manufacturers are considering more humanoid robots that are becoming alarmingly advanced these days. A bi-national research program has been announced to press forward on the project.

Below, the humanoid robots of the Franco-Japanese […]

Computer Scientist Warns Automation Is Humanity’s “Greatest Challenge Ever”

Rice University Professor Moshe Vardi not only thinks that smart machines are rapidly making human workers obsolete, but he also believes a future society where work is obsolete won’t be beneficial for human beings.

Automobile production once provided decent jobs for many Americans, but now factories are nearly human-free zones since 80 percent of car manufacturing […]

Robot Rubio Warns about Automation’s Threat to Jobs

It’s odd that the Gang of Eight amnesty senator who’s running for president is the one to bring up the smart machine danger to employment, albeit with an inaccurate regulation slant.

Robot Rubio apparently thinks that Department of Labor regulations are the cause of mass mechanization, when it’s simply the affordable cost of the machines that makes […]

Robot Bellhops Get a Cash Infusion

Some of the automation applied to the lodging industry has been gimmicky to get easy press attention, like the dinosaur robot check-in clerk in a Japanese hotel.

However, basic wheeled robots that deliver items to rooms seem about to expand with the $15 million invested in the Savioke company of Silicon Valley.

A human employee loads up […]

Will Machines Replace Humans to Become the New Workforce?

Aside from techies, financial people appear to be the most aware of the fundamental changes now occurring in the workplace caused by automation. People who analyze economic trends, including employment, have to look at the facts and numbers — unlike, say, politicians who are either clueless or hiding under the bed. (See my new Social […]

Automation Threatens Jobs in Poor Nations, and May Propel More Illegal Immigration

Smart machines will likely fuel social turmoil in ways we can barely imagine now. Automation has already contributed substantially to the jobless recovery here at home. In addition, the decreasing cost of the machines means they are already taking jobs from humans in the third world and will do so to an increasing degree.

The basic […]

Israel Considers Public Policy to Confront Automation Job Loss

Throughout the industrialized world, automation is making rapid inroads into the workplace and has displaced millions of humans from jobs in the Great Recession. The process operates similarly everywhere — a business owner finds a machine or software that can perform a task more cheaply than a human, and the worker gets a pink slip […]

Davos Meeting Focuses on Fourth Industrial Revolution, aka Automation

The World Economic Forum wrapping up on Saturday in Davos has made the future of employment a major focus, calling it the Fourth Industrial Revolution:

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes developments in previously disjointed fields such as artificial intelligence and machine-learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3-D printing, and genetics and biotechnology, will cause widespread disruption not only […]

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