The rise of AI, automation and the future of jobs

With advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, robots are becoming increasingly capable of performing tasks that were previously thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. This has led to concerns about the potential threat of a jobless future, as many jobs that were once considered safe are now at risk of being automated.

Advancement in AI technology

Advancement in technology, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, are leading to the development of increasingly sophisticated software, robots, apps and other automation systems. These systems are capable of performing a wide range of tasks, including many tasks that were previously done by humans. This has raised concerns that these technologies could potentially lead to widespread job displacement, as robots and automation systems become more capable of performing tasks that were previously done by humans.

Why ideas – not labor or capital – will decide countries’ economic success in the future

New World Order

Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy

By Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence

Recent advances in technology have created an increasingly unified global marketplace for labor and capital. The ability of both to flow to their highest-value uses, regardless of their location, is equalizing their prices across the globe. In recent years, this broad factor-price equalization has benefited nations with abundant low-cost labor and those with access to cheap capital. Some have argued that the current era of rapid technological progress serves labor, and some have argued that it serves capital. What both camps have slighted is the fact that technology is not only integrating existing sources of labor and capital but also creating new ones.

Machines are substituting for more types of human labor than ever before. As they replicate themselves, they are also creating more capital. This means that the real winners of the future will not be the providers of cheap labor or the owners of ordinary capital, both of whom will be increasingly squeezed by automation. Fortune will instead favor a third group: those who can innovate and create new products, services, and business models.

The distribution of income for this creative class typically takes the form of a power law, with a small number of winners capturing most of the rewards and a long tail consisting of the rest of the participants. So in the future, ideas will be the real scarce inputs in the world — scarcer than both labor and capital — and the few who provide good ideas will reap huge rewards. Assuring an acceptable standard of living for the rest and building inclusive economies and societies will become increasingly important challenges in the years to come.

LABOR PAINS

Turn over your iPhone and you can read an eight-word business plan that has served Apple well: “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” With a market capitalization of over $500 billion, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world. Variants of this strategy have worked not only for Apple and other large global enterprises but also for medium-sized firms and even “micro-multinationals.” More and more companies have been riding the two great forces of our era — technology and globalization — to profits.

Read more » Foreign Affairs
Learn more » http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141531/erik-brynjolfsson-andrew-mcafee-and-michael-spence/new-world-order

 

India: Robots to Deliver Pizza? Mumbai Outlet Successfully Tests Drone Delivery

By Johnlee Varghese 

Last week, a four-rotor unmanned drone took off from a pizza outlet in the populated Lower Parel area of Mumbai, as part of a test mission to deliver pizza to Worli, which it successfully accomplished.

Read more » International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/2000-drone-delivers-pizza-mumbai-this-first-india-600748

More details » BBC urdu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/regional/2014/05/140523_india_drone_pizza_police_ra.shtml