We're an awfully long way from creating artificial brains. The latest forms of AI are exceptionally good at traditional computing tasks, but still very poor at tasks we would regard as inherently human.
Current Affairs Robotics and AI....
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We're an awfully long way from creating artificial brains. The latest forms of AI are exceptionally good at traditional computing tasks, but still very poor at tasks we would regard as inherently human.
Oh, I’m quite pessimistic on the future of AI
Ron Swanson
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Yes, we seem to be continually lowering the bar when it comes to human intelligence.
orchard
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Hope you're including me there mate!
It's also the pervasiveness of binary systems within society now that it's commonplace for people to enframe a complex reality on a binary Procrustean bed in order to 'understand' it.
IOT + Sensors + Speech software doesn't = AI although some act like they've just witnessed Prometheus light up the first Bbq, although it is very useful.
I'm so pleased that we will soon be able to eradicate the need for employment.
roydo
in memoriam - 1965-2024
The slight issue with that is the localised issue. I get that its very early days, but not that many folk buy something from a local shop and expect, or need, delivery.
If you have a local Argos, and buy a washing machine, then yeah, delivery needed. But a bot couldnt deliver, install, then take away the old machine. Not for a while anyrate. If ever.
99.9% of my van is long(ish) distance, last mile stuff. That come to me from a depot handling circa 15000 items a day. Ranging in size from a button, to chest freezers. Circa 50% need a signature on delivery, the other 50% can be left safe, in a shed, porch, etc etc, which means finding somewhere safe, unlocking a shed/gate/porch, then writing a card telling the household where it is.
So local, customer deffo in stuff, I can see that maybe, it could work. The other 99.9%, not so sure.
brieverton
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I can't actually see automation / robotics having any greater or lesser impact than that relative to the decline of the manufacturing industry, and sectors like mining.
As ever thus, those impacted will be largely already be poorer and with lower than average educational attainment / qualifications.
The remainder of the working population will adapt and find things to move into.
On my local news this week, I watched two successive reports - one heralding the announcement of 150 IT Jobs followed immediately by a further report on the 'dangers' of automation longer-term to the regional economy. I think these concerns, with respect, are largely misplaced.
Things like a Four Day Week and Basic Income have been largely scoffed at by almost all governments with some notable exceptions. If the impact of automation was significant enough to lead to a major loss in working hours, then these ideas would be embraced. The fact that they are not is telling.
As ever thus, those impacted will be largely already be poorer and with lower than average educational attainment / qualifications.
The remainder of the working population will adapt and find things to move into.
On my local news this week, I watched two successive reports - one heralding the announcement of 150 IT Jobs followed immediately by a further report on the 'dangers' of automation longer-term to the regional economy. I think these concerns, with respect, are largely misplaced.
Things like a Four Day Week and Basic Income have been largely scoffed at by almost all governments with some notable exceptions. If the impact of automation was significant enough to lead to a major loss in working hours, then these ideas would be embraced. The fact that they are not is telling.
Like the 5 day week, minimum wage and most workers rights post Industrial Revolution the four day week will have to be won by the workers and trade unions against a hostile system and capitalist class.
There's no evidence that it has had any impact on employment yet, and, as you say, recessions and other economic factors tend to play a much bigger role.
abelard
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Not sure about that... I've seen a lot of pieces like this: https://www.ft.com/content/dec677c0-b7e6-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62
It probably hinges on how 'automation' is defined
I know the FT's tech journalist, and with respect, she doesn't really have a clue.
abelard
Player Valuation: £35m
You might be right about that, though I've seen this expressed elsewhere, along the lines of 'it's the robots that took your job, not China'
https://qz.com/1269172/the-epic-mistake-about-manufacturing-thats-cost-americans-millions-of-jobs/
I don't really know either way, but I'm not sure it's quite so clear cut that it hasn't been a factor
This is quite a big part of my job, and it's been hugely misrepresented by a media that in equal parts love to over-hype the capabilities of AI/robotics, and then spin that in a dystopian way. They often lack the technical background to know any better, and so the reporting tends to be pretty poor. Indeed, it's been so poor that the Royal Society went to the lengths of publishing a paper bemoaning the inaccurate reporting.
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