According to Prof. Robert Merton, wealth advisors are unlikely to be replaced by robots, writes Stacey Yuen for CNBC. Merton explains that the problem with replacing wealth managers with robo-advisors is a lack of trust. “What you need to make technology work is to create trust. Technology doesn't create trust on its own,” he notes.
WGBH’s Craig LeMoult reports on the future of work conference held at MIT this week, which examined how automation may impact the labor market. Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson explained that, “we're using technologies to augment not just our muscles but our brains, allowing us to control the world and make them figure things out more effectively.”
A paper from MIT researchers suggests that small towns will be more negatively impacted by automation than larger cities, writes Ari Gaskell for HuffPost. The researchers found that, “automation is more likely in roles with repetitive tasks playing a major part, and such lower skilled roles tend to be concentrated more in smaller towns than larger cities.”
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee addresses problems with job growth in the U.S. and the belief that robots will take jobs from humans on WBUR’s Radio Boston. “The problem that we’re facing in this country is not that we stopped creating jobs,” McAfee says. “We’re creating more lower-middle class jobs that are less well paid, more precarious.”
President L. Rafael Reif spoke with Bloomberg’s Peter Barnes about the future of work and stressed the importance of education in preparing workers for an ever-changing job market. Reif said that MIT’s MicroMasters programs offer students an opportunity to, “learn something new and train yourself for the jobs of the future.”
In an article for The Los Angeles Times, Prof. Thomas Kochan examines how new technologies can be developed to complement human workers, rather than replace them. “Companies that engage their workforce when they design and implement new technologies will be best-positioned to manage the coming AI revolution,” concludes Kochan.
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with Ariel Conn of HuffPost about his new book “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” “I’m optimistic that we can create a great future with AI,” says Tegmark. “It’s going to require that we really think things through in advance.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with Ira Flatow of PRI’s Science Friday about his new book, “Life 3.0,” which examines how AI might reshape the future. “We should try to create a great future with [technology] by winning this race between the growing power of technology, and the growing wisdom with which we manage it," says Tegmark.
Wall Street Journal reporter Frank Rose reviews Prof. Max Tegmark’s new book, “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The book asks reader to ponder the possibility that “a computer program will become not just intelligent but wildly so—and that we humans will find ourselves unable to do anything about it.”
Washington Post reporter Robert Samuelson highlights a study co-authored by Prof. David Autor that finds that new technologies can lead to productivity increases that often generate more jobs. Autor and his colleagues found that “every 10 percent gain in productivity resulted in a 2 percent gain in employment spread over four years.”
The Washington Post Editorial Board highlights a paper co-authored by Prof. David Autor examining how technological advancements are impacting the labor market. Autor found that productivity growth associated with new technologies results in higher overall employment, but that job growth has been highly polarized. The study shows the need for societies to, “redouble their efforts to provide education and training.”
Financial Times reporter John Thornhill writes about Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson and Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee’s latest book, “Machine, Platform, Crowd.” Thornhill writes that the book is “a clear and crisply written account of machine intelligence, big data and the sharing economy.”
New Scientist reporter Timothy Revell writes that a new study by Prof. Iyad Rahwan shows that automation will have a larger impact on jobs in smaller cities. Rahwan and his colleagues found that “towns and small cities have a smaller proportion of jobs that will be resilient to automation than larger urban centers.”
Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at MIT, discusses the effects of automated labor and the role of higher education with Steve Kolowich of The Chronicle of Higher Education. “We need an educational system now that excels at producing people to do the things that computers can’t do,” explains McAfee.
In this CBS News Sunday Morning segment, Prof. David Autor speaks with David Pogue about the impact of automation on employment. Autor notes that while in the “last 200 years, we’ve had an incredible amount of automation…this has not in net reduced the amount of employment.”