Where Innovation Meets Imagination
More and more people are realising that it’s not just factory jobs the robots are after – it’s your intellectual jobs too.
In the latest developments, an insurance company in Japan has replaced 34 of its insurance claim workers with artificial intelligence systems.
And the world’s largest hedge fund says it will replace all its managers with AI systems – after it drains the brains of its human employees and distills their knowledge into an algorithm.
Hon Hai Precision, better known as Foxconn, says it will replace all its human workers with robots, according to a report in Futurism.com.
Quoting DigiTimes.com, Futurism says Foxconn has announced a three-part plan to fully automate its factories in the hope of achieving 30 per cent automation by 2020.
Foxconn currently has about 40,000 robots – or Foxbots – working in its factories. The company says it has the capacity to produce 10,000 Foxbots a year. [Read more…] about Foxconn to replace all humans with robots
By Thomas R. Cutler
While Silicon Valley is renowned for software and design prowess. The Bay Area’s four largest cities – San Francisco, San Jose, Fremont and Oakland – are teaming up to foster today’s manufacturing revival and create more entry-level and middle-class jobs.
Together, these Bay Area cities boast a robust manufacturing sector, sustaining nearly 108,500 jobs across 3,200 manufacturing companies – outpacing both the U.S. and California – and driving more than $55 billion into California’s economy.
In collaboration with nonprofit SFMade, these cities surveyed local manufacturing companies to find out what is most important for the industry; they created the first-ever Bay Area State of Urban Manufacturing Report. [Read more…] about Robotics: The Bay Area and beyond
Increasing utilisation of robotics and automation technologies in developed countries is ruining emerging economies around the world, according to a report by the United Nations.
A policy briefing by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Robots and Industrialization in Developing Countries, argues that increased use of robots in developed countries erodes traditional labour-cost advantage of developing countries.
The report notes that new technological breakthroughs in computing, robotics and artificial intelligence in advanced economies will result in large numbers of people being made redundant in developing countries. [Read more…] about Robots eroding employment prospects in developing economies, says UN
One of the major concerns among blue collar workers is the fear that robotic automation will take jobs that are sorely needed by the average working Joe who simply wants to provide for his or her family.
While it is understandable to think this way since automation can do the work in less time and with more efficiency, it may not necessarily be true that automation is going to replace human jobs.
A study emanating from the UK’s prestigious Oxford University indicates that automation may actually be a very good thing in that it will not only bring factories back home, but it will stimulate the economy, creating more jobs in the process. [Read more…] about ‘Believe it or not, automation may bring jobs back to the US’
Most stories have at least two sides, usually one negative and one positive, depending on your point of view or what aspect of the story you choose to highlight.
So, for example, if you read CNN you will see mentions of “record” levels of business, such as in the sectors of automaking and aerospace.
“US aircraft production is at a record high and well ahead of the rest of the world,” says CNN, adding that the auto industry is “within 7 per cent of record levels, making 12 million cars and trucks a year”. [Read more…] about Manufacturing in the USA: The same story told from many angles
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has said what many people have been afraid of for a long time – that robots are going to take over the world.
Lagarde also acknowledged that no one has any idea what’s going to happen in the future.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an exclusive interview, Lagarde says: “There is clearly a fear and an anxiety that robots are going to take over the jobs and that is going to create significant unemployment for the people who have been the workers, replaced by the robots. [Read more…] about ‘Robots are going to take over the jobs,’ says IMF boss Lagarde
