Category Archives: Technology

Robots & Jobs: March 2017 Study

“Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets” is a new study by Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo. Here is the paper’s abstract: As robots and other computer-assisted technologies take over tasks previously performed by labor, there is increasing concern … Continue reading

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Robot Apocalypse – Pt. 4,181

Here’s preliminary footage of our future Robot Overlords. Boston Dynamics introduces its latest future robot overlord pic.twitter.com/qsFewKiWS2 — Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) February 27, 2017

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Robot Apocalypse – Pt. 3,183

From the WSJ (“Supersmart Robots Will Outnumber Humans Within 30 Years, Says SoftBank CEO”): BARCELONA—Within 30 years, artificial intelligence will be smarter than the human brain. That is according to Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp., who says … Continue reading

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Fear of Rogue AI = A Western White Man’s Concern

In “Intelligence: a history”, Stephen Cave, executive director and senior research fellow of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, muddles into some mucky P.C. virtue-signaling: If we’ve absorbed the idea that the more … Continue reading

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NYT Supports Job Automation

It’s quite remarkable how the Left (e.g., the NYT) went from being protectionist for the American working class to being the Champions of Globalism. In “No, Robots Aren’t Killing the American Dream”, the faceless NYT Editorial Board writes: Defenders of … Continue reading

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Cowen on Job Automation

Tyler Cowen, from Marginal Revolution, weighs in on the jobs-automation dilemma (“Industrial Revolution Comparisons Aren’t Comforting”): Consider, for instance, the history of wages during the Industrial Revolution. Estimates vary, but it is common to treat the Industrial Revolution as starting … Continue reading

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The Great Displacement: Robot Tax

Bill Gates throws out a theoretical variation of the inevitable when it comes to accelerating job automation: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and world’s richest man, said in an interview Friday that robots  that steal human jobs should pay their … Continue reading

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The Rise of the Term ‘Weaponized Information’

In “The Rise of the Weaponized AI Propaganda Machine”, the authors begin: “This is a propaganda machine. It’s targeting people individually to recruit them to an idea. It’s a level of social engineering that I’ve never seen before. They’re capturing … Continue reading

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The Relentless Pace of Automation

In MIT Technology Review, Dave Rotman discusses “The Relentless Pace of Automation”: But many economists argue that automation bears much more blame than globalization for the decline of jobs in the region’s manufacturing sector and the gutting of its middle … Continue reading

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The Great Displacement

As I’ve noted here several other times, job automation is the most underreported story in the national discussion, something that is sure to cause future social upheaval of the highest order. If you pay attention, though, you’ll see various news … Continue reading

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