The Role of Bots
How IoT Security Risks Derailing Robotics
Driven by advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence and deep learning, the mobile robots market is projected to grow to $54.1 billion by 2023 from $18.7 billion last year, according to Markets and Markets. But for robotics to progress, security for the internet of things (IoT) needs to be addressed fast, before the reputation […]
Full-Time Employment in the Age of Automation
Back in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a short essay, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” in which he predicted that in a hundred years the 15-hour work week will be commonplace. Keynes made this assertion based on two factors: first, the increase in capital due to extraordinary yields from the compound interest that […]
Thinking About the Future in the Age of Automation
Let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s imagine a world in which almost all the work required to sustain human life on the planet is performed by intelligent machines. Think about it: All the crops get planted, raised and harvested by robots. Same for livestock. Machines make all the clothing and build all the houses. People […]
The ‘Blockbuster Effect’ in the Age Of Automation
Saying that new jobs will always be created to replace those that have been eliminated by automation is a mechanism for avoiding a real problem that’s lurking on the horizon. In 2004, at the height of its popularity, Blockbuster Video had more than 9,000 stores and employed more than 80,000 people worldwide. About 50,000 of […]
Automation: A Few Decades of Pain? Or, What Does Jack Ma Know That I Don’t?
Recently I came across three articles that gave me pause. Each article was a bit disconcerting on its own merit, but when I considered them together, the result caused more than a momentary worry. One article was report in Bloomberg Technology quoting Jack Ma, head of Alibaba, the second richest man in China and a […]