The Robots, AI, and Unemployment Anti-FAQ. Q.
Are the current high levels of unemployment being caused by advances in Artificial Intelligence automating away human jobs? A. Conventional economic theory says this shouldn't happen. Suppose it costs 2 units of labor to produce a hot dog and 1 unit of labor to produce a bun, and that 30 units of labor are producing 10 hot dogs in 10 buns. If automation makes it possible to produce a hot dog using 1 unit of labor instead, conventional economics says that some people should shift from making hot dogs to buns, and the new equilibrium should be 15 hot dogs in 15 buns. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. . * Many industries that would otherwise be accessible to relatively less skilled labor, have much higher barriers to entry now than in 1950. . * True effective marginal tax rates on low-income families have gone up today compared to the 1960s, after all phasing-out benefits are taken into account, counting federal and state taxes, city sales taxes, and so on.
Watson. The Rich and Their Robots Are About to Make Half the World's Jobs Disappear. Two hugely important statistics concerning the future of employment as we know it made waves recently: 1. 85 people alone command as much wealth as the poorest half of the world. 2. 47 percent of the world's currently existing jobs are likely to be automated over the next two decades.
Combined, those two stats portend a quickly-exacerbating dystopia. As more and more automated machinery (robots, if you like) are brought in to generate efficiency gains for companies, more and more jobs will be displaced, and more and more income will accumulate higher up the corporate ladder. The inequality gulf will widen as jobs grow permanently scarce—there are only so many service sector jobs to replace manufacturing ones as it is—and the latest wave of automation will hijack not just factory workers but accountants, telemarketers, and real estate agents. That's according to a 2013 Oxford study, which was highlighted in this week's Economist cover story. Industrial & Utility Robots. Meet "Smart Restaurant": The Minimum-Wage-Crushing, Burger-Flipping Robot.
With a seemingly endless line of talking-heads willing to ignore essentially every study that has been undertaken with regard the effects of raising the minimum-wage; and propose what is merely populist vote-getting 'benefits' for the ever-increasing not-1% who benefitted from Ben Bernnake's bubbles - we thought the following burger-flipping robot was a perfect example of unintended consequences for the fast food industry's workers.
With humans needing to take breaks, have at least 4 weekend days off per month, and demanding ever-increasing minimum-wage for a job that was never meant to provide a 'living-wage', Momentum Machines - a San Francisco-based robotics company has unveiled the 'Smart Restaurants' machine which is capable of making ~360 'customized' gourmet burgers per hour without the aid of a human.
First Jamba Juice, then Applebees, next McDonalds... No human hand touched this hamburger. It was made entirely by robots. Swedish develop self-cleaning dishware - News - Society. Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's Napster for finance. By David Z.
Morris FORTUNE -- In 2013, bitcoin's valuation didn't just skyrocket, but its infrastructure, services, and adoption exploded as well, culminating in recent announcements that major online retailer Overstock.com and NBA team the Sacramento Kings would accept the digital currency as payment. Some still doubt bitcoin's usefulness and durability, but 2014 may leave skeptics even further behind -- developers and entrepreneurs are already hard at work building features on top of the Bitcoin protocol that will allow for the decentralized execution of financial services, from currency hedging to loans to stock issuance to rental and purchase contracts.
These new services rely on the same innovative proof-of-work model of distributed security and record-keeping that has kept the bitcoin currency secure as its value ballooned well past $10 billion. MORE: Beyond bitcoin: Inside the cryptocurrency ecosystem Consultant Andreas M. MORE: Net neutrality: Why we need regulation. Branded Currency - Bitcoin, Tide & Sweat. Self Driving Cars. U.S. Army Considers Replacing Thousands of Soldiers With Robots.