Economy It's Not Just Low Income Jobs That Are At Risk Of Automation...

[KILL KILL]

Law firm Baker & Hostetler, has announced that they are employing IBM’s A.I. "ROSS" to handle their bankruptcy practice.

Ross, “the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney” built on IBM’s cognitive computer Watson, was designed to read and understand language, postulate hypotheses when asked questions, research, and then generate responses (along with references and citations) to back up its conclusions. Ross also learns from experience, gaining speed and knowledge the more you interact with it.

“You ask your questions in plain English, as you would a colleague, and ROSS then reads through the entire body of law and returns a cited answer and topical readings from legislation, case law and secondary sources to get you up-to-speed quickly,” the website says. “In addition, ROSS monitors the law around the clock to notify you of new court decisions that can affect your case.”

http://futurism.com/artificially-intelligent-lawyer-ross-hired-first-official-law-firm/
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/12/the-future-of-the-legal-system-artificial-intelligence.html

As of right now, ROSS will likely just be used for research and keeping up to date on cases, etc and won't be used in the courtroom. However, research is a primary task usually given to lawyers that are new to a firm and have yet to become partner. So, there's a high likelihood that ROSS could be used to replace a lot of personnel.

What say you Sherdog? Is automation good or bad? Where do you see automation in the future and what does this mean for the working class?

 

[PolishHeadlock]

Now we just have to start getting these vertical farms and GMO crop yield up to par and we can all just chill at home drinking whiskey and pwning fools on Sherdog all day

 

[KILL KILL]

Now we just have to start getting these vertical farms and GMO crop yield up to par and we can all just chill at home drinking whiskey and pwning fools on Sherdog all day

I can't wait until we can all just chill and become the fat people from Wall-E

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Sherdog posting algorithm LOOMS

 

[Prime Ang]

Wendy's also just announced they are moving to more kiosk's

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

But can you bang it?

 

[TheStruggle]

automation is always a bad thing for jobs.

 

[Islam Imamate]

I suspect a society without work like the one in Wall-E is nearer than the general public might think and this is another sign of that.

There was a thread here about universal basic income and I mentioned such a workless society as a problem that might be solved by something like UBI. If societies have exponentially decreasing social mobility because an increasingly fewer number of individuals are able to generate wealth based on their level of education and/or amount of capital while an increasingly larger portion of the population becomes shut out of that possibility I think we would be forced to rethink some fundamental aspects of our world and UBI would become a real possibility.

 

[PolishHeadlock]

I can't wait until we can all just chill and become the fat people from Wall-E

Lol honestly I think I'd be in better shape without a job

 

[Renard]

Overall automation raises production. Robots don't actually destroy jobs, they change them. The people whose jobs were eliminated by robots need to recycle themselves into jobs that actually require a human being. It's just growing pains.

 

[PolishHeadlock]

I suspect a society without work like the one in Wall-E is nearer than the general public might think and this is another sign of that.

There was a thread here about universal basic income and I mentioned such a workless society as a problem that might be solved by something like UBI. If societies have exponentially decreasing social mobility because an increasingly fewer number of individuals are able to generate wealth based on their level of education and/or amount of capital while an increasingly larger portion of the population becomes shut out of that possibility I think we would be forced to rethink some fundamental aspects of our world and UBI would become a real possibility.

Yeah I could see that happening. I could also seeing this opening up a whole other business revolution.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Overall automation raises production. Robots don't actually destroy jobs, they change them. The people whose jobs were eliminated by robots need to recycle themselves into jobs that actually require a human being. It's just growing pains.

So assembly line guy should just adapt and become a mechanical engineer?

 

[Rod1]

Overall automation raises production. Robots don't actually destroy jobs, they change them. The people whose jobs were eliminated by robots need to recycle themselves into jobs that actually require a human being. It's just growing pains.

That wouldnt be a problem if higher education and healthcare w was free.

If you are in tens of thousands dollar worth of school debt and your position became obsolete you are simply fucked up.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Reduce Cost

When considering industrial automation as a cost reduction, management traditionally focuses on direct labor. Reducing direct labor is the most obvious method of reducing costs; however, we must be careful when analyzing this scenario. The important thing to remember is that eliminating direct labor results in a cost reduction only when the actual headcount is lower than what would be required to produce the same volume manually. When industrial automation does create an actual headcount reduction, that labor savings is usually specified as the entire cost reduction and other cost benefits are often overlooked.

https://belcanengineeringservices.com/index.php/automation-main/191

 

[KILL KILL]

Overall automation raises production. Robots don't actually destroy jobs, they change them. The people whose jobs were eliminated by robots need to recycle themselves into jobs that actually require a human being. It's just growing pains.

I don't think it's that simple. As technology advances, A.I. and other forms of automation will be able to replace an increasing amount of people. For instance, a single program could theoretically replace thousands of workers, while it may only take a handful of people to have written / maintain the program. So, that leaves thousands of people searching for employment.

Jobs aren't suddenly going to open up if everything becomes automated. Only a few, very skilled people will be employed to create / maintain the automated programs while the rest could be left out in the cold.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I don't think it's that simple. As technology advances, A.I. and other forms of automation will be able to replace an increasing amount of people. For instance, a single program could theoretically replace thousands of workers, while it may only take a handful of people to have written / maintain the program. So, that leaves thousands of people searching for employment.

Jobs aren't suddenly going to open up if everything becomes automated. Only a few, very skilled people will be employed to create / maintain the automated programs while the rest could be left out in the cold.

It depends on policy. If we want rising average standards of living, increasing labor productivity is by far the most important thing. If we get a huge spike in it (not really on the horizon as far as I can see, but hypothetically), either we have a lot more stuff or we have a lot more leisure or some combination, depending on how we make use of that increased productivity. I don't see any good at all from fighting it.

 

[Jack V Savage]

There was a thread here about universal basic income and I mentioned such a workless society as a problem that might be solved by something like UBI.

I think UBI is good, but we could do even better. Maybe something like the Rehn-Meidner model (or the Meidner Plan--the world wasn't ready for it when it was released, but maybe we will be later) or equity taxes on land and capital.

For more on the Meidner Plan:

http://persistenceofpoverty.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_15.html

 

[KILL KILL]

It depends on policy. If we want rising average standards of living, increasing labor productivity is by far the most important thing. If we get a huge spike in it (not really on the horizon as far as I can see, but hypothetically), either we have a lot more stuff or we have a lot more leisure or some combination, depending on how we make use of that increased productivity. I don't see any good at all from fighting it.

Oh it's inevitable, it's just interesting to speculate the possible pros and cons.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Oh it's inevitable, it's just interesting to speculate the possible pros and cons.

I don't think there's any real cons from increasing productivity--there are cons from a poor policy response to increasing productivity.

 

[RetiredSlave]

Im perfectly fine with automation as long as the automatons serve all and not a select few. Id way rather be working on a sculpture than working on an assembly line. It has potential to be another renaissance and industrial revolution rolled into one nifty package.