Words from Web Worker

80% of those polled said their own job will "probably" or "definitely" still exist at that time ​Most Americans Think Robots Will Take All the Jobs, Just Not Theirs. Some two-thirds of the Americans believe that in fifty years, robots and computers will "probably" or "definitely" be performing most of the work currently carried out by humans. While we might believe automation is a threat to the workforce at large, individually, we seem mostly confident that we're irreplaceable. This natural strain of narcissism could create a blind spot, enabling workforce automation to take us by surprise. Younger people (ages 18-29) and people who work in the public sector (including educators and government employees) were both slightly more likely to believe their job is secure. Both groups were also slightly more skeptical of workforce automation in general. #workautomation #futureofwork #robotics #artificialintelligence #automation #jobs #bots https://...

By 2065, the productivity growth that automation could add to the largest economies in the world is the equivalent of an additional 1.1 billion to 2.2 billion full-time workers Today, about half the activities that people are paid to do in the global economy have the potential to be automated by adapting demonstrated technology. All economies, from Brazil and Germany to India and Saudi Arabia, stand to gain from the hefty productivity boosts that robotics and artificial intelligence will bring. The productivity growth enabled by automation can ensure continued prosperity in aging nations and could provide an additional boost to fast-growing ones. #workautomation #futureofwork #robotics #artificialintelligence #automation #productivity #bots #jobs #disruptivetechnology https://hbr.org/2017/04/the-countries-most-and-least-likely-to-be-affected-by-automation

How automating feedback with AI powered conversations can aid decision making in real-time All systems need feedback to learn, improve and course correct. The autopilot functionality in driverless cars is a perfect example. Sensors measure the desired speed and position of the vehicle — among other indicators — and send that data to control systems which adjust accordingly. Gathering rich, organic feedback on a continuous basis is necessary for managers and regulators to make informed decisions. Robust feedback means honoring people’s authentic voices, rather than shoehorning them into a multiple choice format. It means taking the time to find out how many others share what may be a surprising opinion (to management) or understanding of a situation. It means preserving minority opinions. It means listening well. But getting rich feedback from a population usually starts with in-depth interviews of a representative sample. Surveys are then created based on the interviews to see which id...

Quantum robots are being designed to become the worker of tomorrow If robots are ever going to start learning, thinking, and creating on their own, they're going to have to go quantum. Robots are still mostly designed to complete specific tasks and aren't learning from their past mistakes. But the coming quantum computing revolution will change all of that, in a decade, and will lead to real artificial intelligence and smart, creative robots. Quantum computers can be used to allow robots to remember situations they've encountered before in "classical environment"—that is, the real world, where things are constantly changing. The robots will then be able to react and learn at a quadratic rate (that is, very fast, perhaps in real time) and be able to recall memories at that same speed. #workautomation #futureofwork #robotics #artificialintelligence #automation #jobs #machinelearning #bots #quantumcomputing https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3dkpk8/quantum-ro...

Robots won't just be taking our jobs; they'll be forcing us to confront a major existential dilemma: if we didn't have to work anymore, what would we do? Optimists say that more robots will lead to greater productivity and economic growth, while pessimists complain that huge swaths of the labor force will see their employment options automated out of existence. What if both are right? As robots start doing more and more of the work humans used to do, and doing it so much more efficiently than we ever did, what if the need for jobs disappears altogether? What if the robots end up producing more than enough of everything that everyone needs? A future that looks more like Star Trek than Blade Runner, a lot of people could end up with a lot more time on their hands. The answer is both a quantitative and qualitative exercise in defining what makes human intelligence distinct from the artificial kind, a definition that seems to keep getting narrower. Humans will continue to be us...

It becomes tempting to reserve the best of ourselves for the short-term gains of work and “automate” the long game of life. Would you pay someone in the Philippines to answer your email for you — even your personal messages? Or hire strangers on the internet to plan your spouse’s big birthday party? Or throw meat, vegetables, and butter into a blender and call it dinner? These are just some of the actual “life-automating” techniques of busy entrepreneurs today. Maneesh Sethi, best known as the easily-distracted man who paid a woman to slap him in the face every time he checked Facebook. He spoke at South by Southwest in Texas about how he’s now hired a man in Manila (Caleb) to check his email for him. Caleb, who Sethi found through Staff.com, goes through Sethi’s email — both work and personal — every morning and flags important messages for follow-up, as well as categorizing and drafting responses for the rest. By the time Sethi wakes up, his email has already been sorted; and by the...

An Oxford Study shows that 47% of US jobs are at risk of being displaced by automation and computerization   The study from 2013 examined over 700 occupation types to reveal which may be vulnerable in the coming decades and finds that the precarious jobs are not limited to those based on computation and routine tasks. Google's self-driving car, for example, proves that new technology can perform both routine and non-routine tasks, as well as manual and cognitive work, potentially rendering humans redundant to driving and navigation.   As automation and computerization develop, new technologies will disrupt the lives of many workers. But these developments will also create large surpluses of wealth through gains in efficiency. We can choose where and how that wealth is directed. As jobs are displaced, we can pursue policy platforms that strengthen the social safety net and ensure that workers who have been pushed out of the labor force are able to meet their basic needs. If we want ...

The new coming wave of automation is blind to the color of your collar Kaplan said that in the next decade or two, driverless cars could put many of the more than three million licensed professional drivers around the country out of work. While automation long ago revolutionized the assembly line, advances in big data computing power could soon downsize the traditional white collar workforce as well. "Even what you think of as advanced professions that require a great deal of specialization and expertise, the vast majority of the work is routine, and it's those routine tasks which can be now taken over by computers, so that what used to take the work of 20 lawyers may be done by five lawyers, or 20 doctors may be done by five doctors," Kaplan said. Maybe even journalists. Now computers are creeping into the reporting field. At The Associated Press, approximately 4,000 corporate earning stories are being written by computers. The AP uses a program called Wordsmith, created...