Daily Archives: February 23, 2017

We all think were less likely to be affected by misfortune than other people. This is such a phenomena that psychologists have a name for it: Unrealistic comparative optimism. Whether its saving a few bucks by not paying for the rental car insurance or putting off that visit to the doctor, humans do this all the time.

So its no surprise that when it comes to thinking about being replaced by robots, people behave no differently. When asked in an online survey by LivePerson, 65% of 2,000 respondents agreed that their job was safe from automation, but that people in other industries needed to be worried. By most reports, including the White Houses own study in 2016, this is unrealistic comparative optimism.

But there is a small minority thats bucking human psychology: the same survey found 35% of those in the transportation industry are already beginning to learn new skills for fear of being replaced by machines.

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Automation is coming for you too - Quartz

Business mogul Mark Cuban found himself in a Twitter feud this week over how best to deal with future job losses caused by automation.

The tech investor, Shark Tank host and Dallas Mavericks owner tweeted earlier this week that we need to prepare for impending job losses due to robots and artificial intelligence, CNBC reports.

When asked by writer Scott Santens, an advocate of universal basic income (UBI), whether he would support the policy of governments providing a baseline income to all citizens regardless of their employment status, Cuban replied that it was one of the worst responses to the problem.

UBI advocates argue that giving citizens cash income is more effective than welfare programs in countries where it has been piloted, and that the policy may not, as detractors suggest, incentivize unemployment.

Countries such as Finland , Namibia and Liberia have experimented with the policy with varying results. Santens replied to Cuban with a picture of a fact sheet claiming that self-employment in Namibia rose 301% after implementing UBI, while in India recipients were found to be three times as likely to start their own businesses.

Cuban nonetheless rejected the argument, saying he had spent a lot of time looking at it and wasnt convinced, prodding Santens for more evidence and triggering a trailing back and forth between the two.

The billionaire investor has previously said little about how automation may impact jobs in the future. As a major investor in tech giants like Amazon ( amzn ) and Netflix ( nflx ) , Cuban is likely to reap benefits from AI where the average worker may see less desirable outcomes.

A number of other major figures in the tech industry, such as Tesla ( tsla ) CEO Elon Musk , have begun to back policies like UBI out of concern that a wave of unemployment could be created by automated labor.

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Mark Cuban Says Basic Income Would Be the 'Worst Response' to Automation - Fortune

Advancements in technology are not always welcome, particularly to a workforce fearing displacement. This is particularly true with the rise of automation, with the threat that companies could outsource labor to machines. And while experts say artificial intelligence and automation can provide a cheaper and better way to solve problems that previously took up valuable human time and effort, putting numbers to those changes is challenging.

Almost half of knowledge work activity can be automated, according to a recent McKinseystudy.Physical tasks "in highly structured and predictable environments, as well as data collection and processing" will be the first to be automated, according to the report. And because those types of jobs make up a little over half of activities in the economy, that equates to almost $2.7 trillion in wages.

McKinsey also acknowledges almost all occupations blue collar and white collar have potential for some automation, which could result in a savings of about $16 trillion in wages. Those are big numbers, certainly large enough to garner the attention of businesses looking to trim costs in a competitive environment.

Though it is often approached with fear, automation doesn't necessarily mean bad things for employees. When it comes to replacing workers altogether,McKinsey estimates that could only work in less than 5% of occupations.

Instead, automation is more likely to make employees more productive.

While some people express concerns about job losses due to automation, others focus on how the gradual displacement in the workforce through automation will aid the economy and drive growth. McKinsey estimates automation could raise productivity growth globally by 0.8% to 1.4% annually.

"Technology such as natural language generation (NLG) AI technology that can absorb vast quantities of big data and communicate key insights and conclusions into easily digestible reports will drive our workforce forward by streamlining processes, helping people to do their jobs more efficiently," said Sharon Daniels, CEO of Arria NLG. "The best and brightest will be free to innovate; the engineers to build, the doctors to heal, the scientists to discover."

Only 60%or less of actual work time today is spent productively, according to a report from Atlassian.If employees had access to tools and technology they need to automate their workflow, the amount of time spent on workflow disruptions could be drastically lowered.

Through technologies like AI and automation, "the best and brightest will be free to innovate; the engineers to build, the doctors to heal, the scientists to discover."

Sharon Daniels

CEO of Arria NLG

"Successful work will require humans and machines working together to better delight customers, better grow the top line, and better improve the bottom line," said Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO of Genpact.

Workers will not only be happier, many are likely to see a bump in salary as well, Tyagarajan predicts. For example, a recent Deloitte study in the U.K. found that AI technology has replaced 800,000 lower-skilled jobs with 3.5 million new ones, which pay on average 10,000 ($12,500)more than the jobs they replaced. Those jobs include engineers and data analysts, who create the machines and analyze the data collected by the them.

"Essentially, as tasks and jobs become increasingly automated, that automation opens the door for employees to work more efficiently and creatively to solve problems in which human knowledge is intrinsically valuable," said Tyagarajan. "Machines are taking over more and more repetitive, time-consuming tasks, meaning humans will have more time to take on higher-skilled roles."

Daniels agreed. For example, in financial services and healthcare, the vast troves of data collected can change as fast as someone can analyze it.

"AI capabilities and the ability to automate reporting actually takes the time-consuming and repetitive mechanical tasks away from the human, freeing them to investigate new ideas and to create new solutions," said Daniels."We believe that AI will augment knowledge-workers, who will advance to a whole new level of expertise."

"Successful work will require humans and machines working together to better delight customers, better grow the top line, and better improve the bottom line."

Tiger Tyagarajan

CEO of Genpact

The tasks that are taken away by AI are often the time-consuming, repetitive, mundane tasks associated with preparing reports.

"The responsibility of actual reporting remains intact but now can be done more efficiently, in real-time and at scale," said Daniels. "This does not remove the job per se; it optimizes the dynamics of the task, allowing knowledge knowledge-workers and analysts to do more and know more, faster."

One question that remains unanswered: If automation is to take away jobs, will the CIO be responsible for making that decision?

While it's still unclear, experts say in some cases, it will likely be the CIO, but the chief data officer (CDO) may also play a role.

It will also depend on the area being automated. For example, financial services and healthcare sectors see a strong ROI from using AI technology."While the CIO has a responsibility for implementation, the benefits are delivered to multiple departments and stakeholders, so decision-making typically becomes a collective exercise of evaluating and redefining information-related roles," Daniels said.

Either way, experts say enterprise IT leaders need to begin preparing their workers to embrace robots as teammates, not adversaries. McKinsey predicts workers will have to adapt for automation and perhaps learn new, more complex skills that they then perform alongside machines. It will therefore be more a matter of better assisting machines rather than being replaced by them.

"While the CIO has a responsibility for implementation, the benefits are delivered to multiple departments and stakeholders, so decision-making typically becomes a collective exercise of evaluating and redefining information-related roles."

Sharon Daniels

CEO of Arria NLG

"I would advise CEOs and CIOs to stay focused on creating a company culture that equips employees with the tools to succeed in a workplace cohabited by robots," said Tyagarajan. "Pushback both internal and external is inevitable during times of transformation, especially at the beginning."

Leaders need to be transparent and accountable. This begins with keeping employees in the loop when it comes to how and when the company plans to apply AI and automated systems. Employees need to know that while the robots are coming for some jobs, it is possible to retrain and reskill to work alongside them.

"Developing reskilling and education programs is absolutely key to helping employees feel empowered rather than threatened by the rise of robots at work," said Tyagarajan. "[These] programs should focus on teaching human employees how to create, use and maintain the AI systems they will be working alongside."

Workers should also keep in mind there are many areas where humans still outperform machines such as any task requiring negotiation, judgment or creativity.

"By helping human employees build on these strengths, leaders will help employees accept machine teammates as valuable supplements to human talent, rather than insidious replacements," said Tyagarajan.

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Automation, employees and the bottom line - CIO Dive

As we gear up for Robo Madness 2017: A.I. Gets Real, our annual robotics and artificial intelligence conference at Googles offices in Kendall Square, lets connect a few dots around the topic of automation.

In just the past day or two:

Uber has started testing self-driving cars in Tempe, AZ, after having its tests banned in San Francisco in December. (Of course, Uber has got bigger problems at the moment.)

UPS tested a rudimentary form of drone delivery in Lithia, FL. A drone carrying a package took off from the roof of a UPS truck, dropped the package at a destination, and returned to the truck.

Amazon is planning to sell beer and wine at its Go convenience store in Seattle, which will automatically bill customers on their way out (no cashiers). A human worker will be needed to check IDs, though.

The impact of automation on jobs and society is an increasingly hot topic, with debates going on about how and when human workers will be displaced by robots and A.I. systems.

Bill Gates said in a recent interview with Quartz that governments should tax companies use of automation technologies, to mitigate the impact of job losses. Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things, Gates said. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, youd think that wed tax the robot at a similar level.

Gatess idea is that robot taxes can be put towards things like education, elder care, and other societal needs. But government, not businesses, would need to make that happen, he said. And thats what scares me.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's Deputy Editor, National IT Editor, and Editor of Xconomy Boston. E-mail him at gthuang [at] xconomy.com.

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Amazon, Uber, and Bill Gates's Robot Tax: An Automation Snapshot - Xconomy

A recent episode of CBC Radios Day 6 featured an interview with David Levy, artificial intelligence expert and author of Love and Sex with Robots. Levy discussed a line of robotic sex dolls to be released in 2017 that can speak and respond to touch. He reaffirmed his 2007 prediction, in his book Love and Sex with Robots, that humans will be marrying robots by 2050. He suggests this will be a step forward.

There are millions of people out there who, for various reasons, dont have anyone to love or anyone who loves them. And for these people, I think robots are going to be the answer, he said.

I suspect that Levy sees this as a lucrative business opportunity for Intelligent Toys, Ltd, a company the article mentions he founded.

The profit potentials of automation are not limited to robot spouses.

Front and center is the issue of jobs. Donald Trump promised to bring back millions of jobs that globalization outsourced at the expense of U.S. workers. According to a 2014 MIT study recently cited by the New York Times, 2 million to 2.4 million jobs have been lost to China alone since 2000. People living in areas of the country most impacted by those job losses suffer long-term unemployment and reduced income for the rest of their lives. They are understandably angry and constitute an important segment of Trumps political base.

But, as former President Barack Obama noted in his farewell address, those jobs are gone forevernot because of globalization, but because of automation. The next wave of economic dislocation wont come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good, middle-class jobs obsolete.

Gartner, an information technology consulting firm, estimated in 2014 that by 2025, a third of current U.S. jobs will be replaced by some form of automation. Indeed, China itself has become a world leader in automation, threatening both Chinese and U.S. workers.

Trump touted United Technologies as his first victory in convincing a corporation to keep a factory in the U.S. But UT has announced plans to use automation to do the jobs it would have moved. So, in the name of saving jobs, Trump is subsidizing with tax breaks their elimination by automation.

We are seeing a flood of predictions in business media from artificial intelligence experts that jobs at risk include pharmacists, cashiers, drivers, astronauts, soldiers, babysitters, elder care workers, sports writers, and news reportersamong others. On Wall Street, the jobs of most floor traders have already been automated, and the jobs of hedge fund managersand stock market analysts may soon be on the chopping block.

These predictions suggest we face the prospect of an economy with little need for humans. As with any technology, however, artificial intelligence is not inherently good or bad. The issue is how we choose to use it and who makes the choice.

The economy is a human creation. The only reason for its existence is to support peopleall people in securing material well-being sufficient for their good health and happiness. For most people, there is no happiness without relationships, a sense of being needed by others, and opportunities to express their creativity. That most always includes some form of work. Thus, while the automation of dirty, dangerous, and boring tasks can be a blessing for humanity, the need for meaningful work remains an imperative.

Our vision of how to deal with the coming workforce disruption must be guided by our common quest to actualize the fullness of our human possibility, not by the quest for corporate profits. The primary decisions regarding how to use artificial intelligence and how to distribute the benefits must be in the hands of self-governing human communities rather than profit-maximizing corporations.

The social isolation of which Levy speaks is realthe product of economic forces that undermine the family and community relationships that for millennia sustained our species and defined our humanity. Our need to relate to one another is foundational to our humanity.

Attempting to meet that need by turning to machines that look, feel, and act like humans would be a further step toward our dehumanization. If we want our children to learn to relate to humans and if we are more comfortable being treated by human doctorsthen let our primary care providers be humans aided by machines as appropriate. But let us not confuse the two. The creation of machines that look, feel, and act like humans should be prohibited. If it looks, feels, and acts like a human, it should be a human.

In our current political climate, everything is up for grabs. This is a timely moment to stretch our imaginations and envision the lives and the society we want. Let us be clear that a world in which we are distracted from our lonelinessby electronic games, animated videos, and robot sex is more appropriate as a horror movie plot than as a desirable vision for society.

Let us strive for an economy in which a primary goal and responsibility of business is to make work meaningful, build relationships of internal and external community, and heal the Earth. A combination of the appropriate use of automation and of worker and community ownership would make this possible. This might be a foundational element of a positive democratic vision for a living Earth economy, around which all people of good will can enthusiastically unite.

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For Automation to Benefit Society, It Must Serve Humans, Not Replace Them - YES! Magazine

Caterpillar(NYSE:CAT), the world's No.1 heavy machinery maker,is telling miners not to rest on their laurels now that the industry is finally coming back up from a brutal downturn that forced companies to cost cuts and closed down operations.

In a presentation at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Explorations (SME) meeting 2017 this week, the Peoria, Illinois-based firm (soon to move to Chicago) showed how its Cat MineStar a comprehensive suite of mining technology products aimed atincreasing productivity and profit can help firms reap even more benefits from the current recovery in commodity prices.

Cats automation tools contained in MineStar enable miners to configure technologies to fit their needs, providing everything from material tracking to sophisticated real-time fleet management, machine health systems, autonomous equipment systems and more.

The package of solutions, designed to support and maximize returns and efficiency of mining operations, has already been adopted in 220 sites across the globe, Cat said in the presentation. The majority of its users, it noted, are based in the Asia-Pacific region and North America, but the company sees huge opportunities in other markets such as South America and Europe, especially now that miners have begun climbing out of one of the industry's most severe slumps.

In the past 12 months, as sales were stalled, Caterpillar focused on developing ways to improve current equipment performance.

Together with increasing the presence of company representatives at mine sites, whose mission is to help operators make the most out of their acquisitions, Cat has been heavily investing in research and development of digital solutions, the firms President for Resource Industries, Denise Johnson,recently told MINING.com.

The goal, though seems counterintuitive, is to reduce the amount of mining equipment needed at operations. That means that during a downturn, such as the one that wrecked the industry lately, Cat would keep onthriving in terms of salesbeyond those related toequipment.

Now that many are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the company said it would continue to work on bringing mining customers improved operational decision-making capabilities.

Learn more about MineSite here:

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Caterpillar touts automation solutions as top miners swing back to profit - MINING.com