A recent study conducted by Brookings Institute researchers found artificial intelligence could “affect work in virtually every occupational group”. However, it’s yet to be seen exactly how jobs will be impacted.
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As machine automation and artificial intelligence surge, there’s paranoia our jobs will be overrun by robots. But even if this happens, work won’t disappear, because humans need it.
How can we make sure new technologies stay centred on human wellbeing?
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The humanities can supply wisdom to guide our galloping technological progress.
Are gig workers lonely and isolated? Or independent and liberated? New research suggests despite assumptions about freedom, gig workers report feeling lonely and powerless.
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We are far from defenseless against the rise of robots, although they’ll take many of our routine jobs. Our special strength is our ability to apply rules that don’t exist.
Even though the future is unknown, Canada’s employment rate has risen steadily from 53 per cent in 1946 to more than 61 per cent today.
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Our inability to foresee the jobs of the future should be tempered by the realization that that jobs have always appeared in the past, regardless of technological advances.
Uber and Lyft drivers protest their working conditions in Los Angeles in May 2019.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Jeffrey Hirsch, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
If your job doesn’t currently involve automation or artificial intelligence in some way, it likely will soon. Computer-based worker surveillance and performance analysis will come, too.
Humans still have an edge over non-Hollywood AI in several key areas that are essential to journalism, including complex communication, expert thinking, adaptability and creativity.
Social and cognitive skills such as drawing conclusions about emotional states and social interactions are least vulnerable to being displaced by AI.
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A shift to outcomes-based education will enable students to gain critical automation-resistant competencies to succeed and thrive in the future workforce alongside AI.
A man is trying glasses with hologram technology at a research centre called ARENA2036 in Stuttgart, Germany.
DAAD-Markus Guhl
People – individually and in groups – were not as good at facial recognition as an algorithm. But five people plus the algorithm, working together, were even better.
The future of work could look more like this.
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While some alarmists predict AI will decimate the workforce, the truth is concerted action by leaders in labor, business, government and education can ensure workers aren’t replaced by robots.
As robotics, IoT, and other automation technologies grow in sophistication and commercial feasibility, jobs at nearly every skill level will be impacted.
Mid-career workers have solid business skills valuable to the tech industry.
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Google DeepMind software can diagnose eye conditions as well as human doctors – and the medical profession should welcome this.
Automation has replaced workers in mining and industry, including the steelworks at Port Kembla, but most Australians are more worried about jobs going overseas.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Most Australian workers are fairly relaxed about their own job security, but they do worry about the risks of poor management and outsourcing to cheaper labour.
Ultimately, the future of work depends on what we want our future society to look like.
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Young people are the most vulnerable as industry and the labour market undergo radical change, but meeting this challenge could just be a matter of plugging existing gaps.