ROBOTS, LAUGHTER, AND UNEMPLOYMENT

ROBOTS, LAUGHTER, AND UNEMPLOYMENT
Author: Young Akpasubi
Publisher: Young Akpasubi
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2023-06-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This book provides an overview of the rapid advancements in AI technology, setting the stage for understanding its impact on the workforce and society. Examining the Impact of AI: It explores the benefits and concerns associated with AI adoption, discussing how different industries and job sectors are affected by automation and the potential for job displacement. Reskilling and Upskilling: The book emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and acquiring new skills to adapt to the changing demands of the AI-driven job market. It explores strategies for individuals and organizations to stay relevant and thrive in this new era. Ethical Considerations: It delves into the ethical implications of AI adoption, discussing topics such as fairness, transparency, privacy, and accountability. The book emphasizes the need for responsible AI development and highlights the importance of establishing ethical guidelines and regulations. Personal Stories of Job Displacement: Through engaging case studies, the book shares personal stories of individuals who have experienced job displacement due to AI automation. These stories provide insights into the challenges, struggles, and triumphs of individuals navigating the changing employment landscape. Redefining Work and Work-Life Balance: The book explores the evolving nature of work in the AI era, discussing topics such as flexible work arrangements, task automation, and the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance in a technology-driven world. Collaboration between Humans and AI: It emphasizes the collaborative approach between humans and AI, highlighting how AI technologies can augment human capabilities rather than replacing them. The book explores the potential for humans and AI to work together to achieve better outcomes. Future Implications: The book concludes by discussing the future of work in a world with AI, encouraging readers to consider the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. It emphasizes the importance of responsible AI adoption, ongoing learning, and ethical considerations for creating a positive and inclusive future. These highlights offer a glimpse into the key themes and insights covered in this Guide to surviving the AI Revolution. It is a comprehensive exploration of the AI revolution, its impact on jobs, and the necessary adaptations individuals and organizations must make to thrive in this new era.

Work in the Age of Robots

Work in the Age of Robots
Author: Mark P. Mills
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1641770287

Are robots finally replacing humans? Does the emerging age of artificial intelligence and automation mean we will soon see “peak jobs” and the need for a Universal Basic Income to support a widening swath of hapless citizens unsuited for employment in a primarily “knowledge” workforce? Improving productivity—reducing labor hours per unit of product or service—has been the hallmark of economic progress for centuries. But advances due to robots and AI, some say, will be fundamentally different because digital machines are ready to revolutionize the nature of work in nearly every sector, not just one or two. But the lessons of history and the realities of technologies suggest that, despite yet more disruption, the overall result will be net job gains and faster economic growth.

Jobs, Robots & Us

Jobs, Robots & Us
Author: Kinley Salmon
Publisher: Bridget Williams Books
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2019-05-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1988545854

Could millions of jobs soon be eliminated by artificial intelligence and robots? From driverless cars to digital assistants, it seems the world of work is on the cusp of a technological revolution that is generating hopes and fears alike. But are the robots really knocking at the door? And what does all this mean for New Zealanders? In this far-sighted and lucid book, Kinley Salmon explores the future of work in New Zealand. He interrogates common predictions about a jobless future and explores what might happen to workers in New Zealand as automation becomes more widespread. This book also asks big questions about the power we have to shape technological progress and to influence how robots and artificial intelligence are adopted. It sketches out two bold alternative futures for New Zealand – and suggests what it might take, and what we might risk, to pursue each of them. It is time, Salmon argues, to start debating and choosing the future we want for New Zealand.

The American Robot

The American Robot
Author: Dustin A. Abnet
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2020-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 022669271X

Although they entered the world as pure science fiction, robots are now very much a fact of everyday life. Whether a space-age cyborg, a chess-playing automaton, or simply the smartphone in our pocket, robots have long been a symbol of the fraught and fearful relationship between ourselves and our creations. Though we tend to think of them as products of twentieth-century technology—the word “robot” itself dates to only 1921—as a concept, they have colored US society and culture for far longer, as Dustin A. Abnet shows to dazzling effect in The American Robot. In tracing the history of the idea of robots in US culture, Abnet draws on intellectual history, religion, literature, film, and television. He explores how robots and their many kin have not only conceptually connected but literally embodied some of the most critical questions in modern culture. He also investigates how the discourse around robots has reinforced social and economic inequalities, as well as fantasies of mass domination—chilling thoughts that the recent increase in job automation has done little to quell. The American Robot argues that the deep history of robots has abetted both the literal replacement of humans by machines and the figurative transformation of humans into machines, connecting advances in technology and capitalism to individual and societal change. Look beneath the fears that fracture our society, Abnet tells us, and you’re likely to find a robot lurking there.

R. U. R.

R. U. R.
Author: Karel Capek
Publisher:
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1923
Genre:
ISBN:

Robotization of Work?

Robotization of Work?
Author: Barbara Czarniawska
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2020-04-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1839100958

In this timely book, Barbara Czarniawska and Bernward Joerges examine the hopes and fears around work and job security inspired by automation, from the original coining of the term ‘robot’ to the present day media fascination. Have these hopes and fears changed or do they remain the same? This discerning book investigates whether these changes in perception correlate to actual changes taking place in the field of robotics.

Laugh Lines

Laugh Lines
Author: Ben Bova
Publisher: Baen Publishing Enterprises
Total Pages: 755
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1618246739

Space: The Funniest Frontier! Ben Bova, SF master humorist You'd better believe it! A supersonic zeppelin. The "Crisis of the Month" Oz, revealed. A foray into a future where publishing is literally cut-throat. A raucous horde of hard SF legend Ben Bova's most amusing and imaginative novels and tales! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Bova gets better and better..."¾Los Angeles Daily News.

The Globotics Upheaval

The Globotics Upheaval
Author: Richard Baldwin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0190901780

At the root of inequality, unemployment, and populism are radical changes in the world economy. Digital technology is allowing talented foreigners to telecommute into our workplaces and compete for service and professional jobs. Instant machine translation is melting language barriers, so the ranks of these "tele-migrants" will soon include almost every educated person in the world. Computing power is dissolving humans' monopoly on thinking, enabling AI-trained computers to compete for many of the same white-collar jobs. The combination of globalization and robotics is creating the globotics upheaval, and it threatens the very foundations of the liberal welfare-state. Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalization experts, argues that the inhuman speed of this transformation threatens to overwhelm our capacity to adapt. From computers in the office to automatic ordering systems in restaurants, we are familiar with the how digital technologies offer convenience while also eliminating jobs. Globotics will disrupt the lives of millions of white-collar workers much faster than automation, industrialization, and globalization disrupted the lives of factory workers in previous centuries. The result will be a backlash. Professional, white-collar, and service workers will agitate for a slowing of the unprecedented pace of disruption, as factory workers have done in years past. Baldwin argues that the globotics upheaval will be countered in the short run by "shelter-ism" - government policies that shelter some service jobs from tele-migrants and thinking computers. In the long run, people will work in more human jobs-activities that require real people to use the uniquely human ability of independent thought-and this will strengthen bonds in local communities. Offering effective strategies such as focusing on the social value of work, The Globotics Upheaval will help people prepare for the oncoming wave of an advanced robotic workforce.

Teaching Machines

Teaching Machines
Author: Audrey Watters
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2023-02-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 026254606X

How ed tech was born: Twentieth-century teaching machines--from Sidney Pressey's mechanized test-giver to B. F. Skinner's behaviorist bell-ringing box. Contrary to popular belief, ed tech did not begin with videos on the internet. The idea of technology that would allow students to "go at their own pace" did not originate in Silicon Valley. In Teaching Machines, education writer Audrey Watters offers a lively history of predigital educational technology, from Sidney Pressey's mechanized positive-reinforcement provider to B. F. Skinner's behaviorist bell-ringing box. Watters shows that these machines and the pedagogy that accompanied them sprang from ideas--bite-sized content, individualized instruction--that had legs and were later picked up by textbook publishers and early advocates for computerized learning. Watters pays particular attention to the role of the media--newspapers, magazines, television, and film--in shaping people's perceptions of teaching machines as well as the psychological theories underpinning them. She considers these machines in the context of education reform, the political reverberations of Sputnik, and the rise of the testing and textbook industries. She chronicles Skinner's attempts to bring his teaching machines to market, culminating in the famous behaviorist's efforts to launch Didak 101, the "pre-verbal" machine that taught spelling. (Alternate names proposed by Skinner include "Autodidak," "Instructomat," and "Autostructor.") Telling these somewhat cautionary tales, Watters challenges what she calls "the teleology of ed tech"--the idea that not only is computerized education inevitable, but technological progress is the sole driver of events.