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South Korea tops ‘Automation Readiness Index’

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South Korea, Germany and Singapore are the world’s top-ranked nations in their preparations for smoothly integrating intelligent automation into their economies, according to an index and report released today by ABB and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

The report “The Automation Readiness Index (ARI): Who Is Ready for the Coming Wave of Innovation?” finds that even the best-prepared countries must develop even more effective education policies and training programs, as well as place a new emphasis on continual learning over the course of a career.

Those policies and programs, the report recommends, must ensure that the rapid adoption of automation technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) will not leave people unprepared for the new, more human-oriented jobs that will be needed as robots and algorithms take on more of the routine tasks that can be and will be automated.

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New EIU report forecasts impact of machine learning to 2030

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A new study released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit ran three econometric scenarios to 2030 on five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan—and developing Asia as a whole.

In Risks and rewards: Scenarios around the economic impact of machine learning, commissioned by Google, two scenarios assumed greater human productivity through upskilling and greater investment in technology and access to open source data, while the third assumed insufficient policy support for structural changes in the economy.

The results showed that, although the fears of those pessimistic about the impact of machine learning, and artificial intelligence in general, may be overblown, the optimists’ claims are not entirely supported, either.

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Manufacturing: Trump tempts Toyota with tax break if it builds cars in US instead of Mexico

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toyota mexico
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with Toyota North America CEO James Lentz last year during the start of building the facility in Guanajuato

lockAfter apparently pressuring Ford to change its plans to expand its manufacturing operations in Mexico, President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly putting pressure on Toyota to follow suit. 

Ford had intended to build a plant in Mexico, but is now applying the brakes on those plans, according to the Economist.

A couple of days ago, Ford said it would cancel its $1.6 billion project in San Luis Potosí, Mexico and instead invest $700 million in its plant in Michigan, in the US.  [Read more…] about Manufacturing: Trump tempts Toyota with tax break if it builds cars in US instead of Mexico