automation

If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?

6:30am June 18, 2024

by Greg Rosalsky

Machine translation of foreign languages has been good for a while. And yet human translators are still in demand. Why isn’t AI killing these jobs? And even if it isn’t, how is it reshaping them?

DEARBORN, MI - Ford F150 trucks being built by robots

A New Way To Understand Automation

6:30am June 22, 2021

by Greg Rosalsky

We speak with one of the leading scholars of automation about its evolving impacts on society.

Will Your Job Still Exist In 2030?

7:33pm July 11, 2019

by Alina Selyukh

New research finds automation widening the gap between urban and rural areas and dramatically affecting people who didn't go to college or didn't finish high school.

Economy

What The Future Of Work Means For Cities

10:42am January 15, 2019

by Greg Rosalsky

One of the nation's top economists explores the past and future of work in cities. He finds that opportunities for workers without a college degree are drying up.

Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks

'Automating Inequality': Algorithms In Public Services Often Fail The Most Vulnerable

8:38pm February 19, 2018

by Ari Shapiro

Author Virginia Eubanks argues that automated systems that governments across the U.S. use to deliver benefit and welfare programs are often rigged against the very people who need it most.

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Employees work on automobile parts at a production line at the BMW factory in Shenyang, China, on Nov. 22. Twelve percent of workers in China could need to switch jobs by 2030, researchers say.

Economy

Automation Could Displace 800 Million Workers Worldwide By 2030, Study Says

2:49pm November 30, 2017

by James Doubek

But in the long term, new technology could create more jobs than it eliminates, a new report says. It says governments and businesses have to prioritize retraining workers for the new economy.

A prototype Moby Mart is being tested in Shanghai. Per Cromwell, the project's lead designer, says four to six additional mobile supermarkets are planned in the coming year.

Economy

Too Convenient? A Mobile Supermarket That Comes To You

5:46pm July 05, 2017

by Glenn McDonald

The Moby Mart concept is being tested in China. A 7-Eleven meets driverless tractor-trailer, the store could be summoned by an app and staffed by a holographic clerk. Are we entering WALL-E world?

Robots move racks of merchandise at an Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, Calif. When a robot finds its storage unit, it glides underneath, lifts it up and then delivers it to a worker.

Online Retail Boom Means More Warehouse Workers, And Robots To Accompany Them

8:33pm June 19, 2017

On the outskirts of the Bay Area, farming communities are hoping that warehouse jobs tied to the e-commerce surge will boost the local economy. But automation is expected to take over many such jobs.

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Starship Technologies' delivery robot exits the elevator in the company's office.

Hungry? Call Your Neighborhood Delivery Robot

10:01am March 23, 2017

by Kat Lonsdorf

Self-driving delivery robots have popped up on the sidewalks of Washington, D.C. — and other locations have expressed interest. The bots learn about traffic patterns with every trip they take.

As the technology improves and expands for self-driving cars, Alain Kornhauser says that does not mean the trucks will be driverless. It's likely a trucker will still sit in the driver's seat ready to take control should something go wrong.

For The Long Haul, Self-Driving Trucks May Pave The Way Before Cars

6:58pm October 13, 2016

by Uri Berliner

Despite being self-driving, big rigs will still need truckers to ride along and take control of in case of emergency situations. But some say they may be the last generation to do their jobs.

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