Will We See The Start Of Technological Unemployment? Job Losses Could Mount In 2018...

in #technology7 years ago

Over the past couple months, I wrote a number of articles detailing my views of how we are in a new age and how technology will cause massive job loss. Many seem to contest this point yet rarely do they come from within the technology sector. Some of the leading Titans in that industry have forewarned about this perilous outcome.

It appears that artificial intelligence is about to take the next step. According to a report by Forrester Research , they predict that up to 9% of US jobs could be eliminated in 2018. This is due to the rise in white collar automation. As many as 500,000 bots could be implemented as we see a shift from manual to automated IT.

The report did mention that they believe there will be a 2% increase in employment from the development if AI to help offset some of the loss. Most at risk are back-office and administrative, sales, and call center employees.

This is the most aggressive report we have seen in this arena so far. Unfortunately for many workers, the future is right around the corner.

For the full article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2017/11/12/forrester-predicts-that-ai-enabled-automation-will-eliminate-9-of-us-jobs-in-2018/#7e470fd412b0

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I agree that the rate will accelerate, the technology is more and more accessible and well documented.
Probably WallStreet is going to be the best candidate for this kind of automation and also the IT field, but it will be more silent: there is no syndicate or big lobby.

Going to be interesting to see how this unfolds. It may not be pretty!

That's an extreme estimation. AI isn't nearly mature enough to replace that many jobs, and companies aren't that fast to adopt new technologies, even when they would save or make them money. AI development this last year has been astounding, but not that astounding.
It would also likely require massive expansion of server farms.
Not buying it.

Yes this is the most aggressive projection I have seen. To me, it is a bit too aggressive...I can see that on a three year time frame.

The implementation and integration most likely would take longer than one year on a massive scale like is mentioned.

Three years I could see. It's probably a little quick, but possible. We'll likely just begin to see jobs replaced by next year, or the year after, to a point where people start to notice. There's also development time to consider. It could be as high as 6-9% in 3 years. It could also be a lot longer.
It's almost inevitable in the coming decade.
One thing's for sure, we should be investing a lot more into education.

Its pretty sad to ponder this idea. And lets call it what it is, computers are replacing human beings. I think the media likes to use the terms "AI" or "Bots" because its easier for humans to accept. But quite frankly programmed computers is how it should be referenced. But my comment was not to argue about semantics but rather the reasoning behind this. . .As long as we are driven by excess, greed, and the need for increased profits/bottom line, then there will always be a lean towards higher productivity, cheap labor. Wealth distribution is at its worst in history and will continue to destroy the middle class leaving 2 classes. Wealthy and Poor. IMHO, this is truly the direction we are heading, at least in the USA.

Nice post, btw. I always like reading what you have to say. Keep it up and Steem on!
You get an upvote and resteem from the dawg

Actually, if we want to take it a step further, it is software that is replacing people. For 3 decades we witnessed the jobs in the manufacturing sector destroyed by technology (contrary to the propaganda put out that it was China and Mexico which took all the jobs). Now, we are going to see the same thing happen in the white collar sector. The problem that society has it is a much easier to write software to automate a white collar job than it is to create robotics with the dexterity to do what human workers do.

This is why the speed of things is really going to be outrageous. The next 3 years are going to wipe out so many jobs that society wont know what hit them.

Repeative jobs, data entry, user interface testing which is repeatstive in nature etc are getting replaced already. One of the most important happenings in the recent oracle world summit was promotion of UI automation tools to the main stream. I think BPO and KPO is already dead and the job losses are already happening as we write this

get that crypto and let it go to the moon

How does AI relate to social mobility? I don’t see much on this