Technological Unemployment News & Discussions

[raklian]

This is only going to hasten automation. Will not be too terribly surprised new automated ports (or ports that aren't in use now but converted) cropping up in the next few years.

[wjfox]

Not sure if this qualifies as "unemployment", but I guess it belongs in this thread.

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Wimbledon brings in electronic line calling for 2025

1 hour ago

Line judges are to disappear from Wimbledon because the All England Club has decided to adopt electronic line calling from 2025.

The technology will be in place for all qualifying and main draw matches and replace the judges who were responsible for calling shots 'out' and 'fault' on a serve.

Wimbledon's hand has been forced by the ATP's decision to adopt Electronic Line Calling Live across the men's tour from 2025 in the interests of greater accuracy and consistency.

The women's WTA Tour is moving in the same direction and with the Australian Open and the US Open having already adopted electronic line calling in 2021 and 2022 respectively, Wimbledon risked becoming an anomaly.

"The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation," the All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton said. "Having reviewed the results of the testing undertaken at The Championships this year, we consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/arti ... 3zg3y23v7o

[firestar464]

Full article:

https://hbr.org/2024/11/research-how-ge ... bor-market

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Use robots instead of hiring low-paid migrants, says shadow home secretary

Tory MP Chris Philp calls for more investment in technology to reduce UK’s net migration figures

Thu 28 Nov 2024 09.27 GMT

Businesses should be using more robots instead of hiring low-paid migrants, the shadow home secretary has said.

The Conservative MP Chris Philp says other countries “use a lot more automation” for tasks such as picking fruit and vegetables “rather than simply importing a lot of low-wage migrant labour”.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he called for more investment in technology to reduce the UK’s net migration figures.

Philp said: “To give an example, in Australia and New Zealand, they are rolling out robotic and automated fruit- and vegetable-picking equipment, in South Korea they use nine times the number of robots in manufacturing processes compared to us, in America they use a lot more modular construction which is much faster and much more efficient.

“There’s a lot of things British industry can do to grow without needing to import large numbers of low-wage migrants.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -secretary

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

200,000 Wall Street Jobs May Be Slashed By Artificial Intelligence

Jan 9, 2025

It looks like no industry is immune from artificial intelligence, with the financial services sector facing disruption as AI technologies threaten to displace a considerable share of its workforce.

Major Wall Street banks are expected to slash up to 200,000 jobs over the next three to five years due to AI adoption, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. This significant reduction in workforce is primarily attributed to AI's ability to perform tasks traditionally carried out by human workers more efficiently and accurately.

The impending job cuts are expected to primarily affect back-office, middle-office and operational departments, where routine and repetitive tasks are prevalent. Positions involving data analysis, financial trend assessment and risk evaluation are particularly vulnerable, as AI systems can process vast amounts of information and generate insights at speeds far surpassing human capabilities.

Entry-level positions on Wall Street could also face an uncertain future as financial firms consider slashing new hires by as much as two-thirds, as AI assumes responsibilities performed by junior analysts.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/ ... hed-by-ai/

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

Reading this mostly silly Webtoon comic.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/comedy/axed ... le_no=1558

What makes this relevant to this thread, of all places, is that

SPOILER ALERT

The main antagonist of Season 1 basically summoned skeletons to take everyone's jobs. He failed at the end partly because the skeletons were not qualified to replace all jobs.

The key arguments against utopian mass unemployment put forward were:

- People need meaning and purpose
- Without work, people will have no desire to self-improve.
- People deserve to be able to work. Taking that choice away from them is immoral.

Funnily enough, the main character actually said something that is, in my opinion, an effective counterargument to the first two points, even though that was obviously not her intention. She told the antagonist (who claimed to have taken all jobs) that he'd never replace certain roles in society (eg. mother, friend, etc.) This shows that there's more to life than just work, you know? It's not like meaning just evaporated. Many will still fill an irreplaceable role in someone's life, even if they are not necessarily doing it for money.

Furthermore, points one and two contradict each other. Point One suggests that people are driven to be useful and do something, but Point Two seems to suggest that without work, people will just laze around. Wouldn't Point One suggest that people would "be useful and do something" (whatever that means to them) outside work?

(Worth linking to some stuff Raklian posted in the UBI thread a while ago.)

https://futuretimeline.net/forum/viewto ... 774#p42774
https://futuretimeline.net/forum/viewto ... 026#p44026 (Not relevant to the comic, but in reality technological unemployment isn't going to hit everyone all at once. This will increase competition for remaining jobs while they still exist, and people who seek meaning through work will be able to drive themselves to compete for these jobs without having to worry about their basic needs and happiness. Some of these jobs might even be splittable under the part-time model described in the graphic.)



DarkMatter2525 explained that much of society's ills are caused by greed and want, and removing want would remove greed (for instance, there'd no reason to hoard apples if there is an abundance of them; you would not be in any danger of lacking apples, nor would you be able to hold power over others by controlling the supply of apples). The protagonist of the comic suggests that her friend would not have quit his criminal lifestyle had he not been motivated to work, but why do you think he was living a life of crime in the first place? The vast majority of people (except perhaps those with psychological conditions) don't just wake up one day and go "oh imma just cause chaos."

The final point is arguably the strongest. True, when say, AGI starts taking jobs, yes, few will be able to choose whether they remain employed or not. However, the current situation is also one without choice- one must work to live decently. Essentially the choice is between two situations with some degree of choice taken from people. The first one requires that you do stuff to be able to frigging live (not to mention the presence of crime, greed, want, and all the fucked up shit caused by capitalism as currently implemented in many countries). The second might limit the number of meaningful things one can do in life (there'd still be many left IMO). I'd go with the second...

Disagreement with the main points of the comic aside, the whole deal with the skeletons serves as a cautionary tale. If the AI that replaces people for a certain job is not qualified for that job, it's not going to end well. Tell that to the techbros who are concerned solely with "move fast and break things"...yeah, as if the stuff being broken isn't key industries and sectors vital to everyday life.

Rest of the plot is okay IMO. Too much whimsical stuff for me, but it doesn't make the story bad just yet (I've only finished the first season). At times it felt like Monty Python and the Holy Grail- more of a gag lineup than a serious story.

[funkervogt]

Those liberal arts degrees are also worthless.

[firestar464]

Depends on how you define worth- usefulness or replacability?

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

H&M to use digital clones of models in ads and social media

27 March 2025, 13:57 GMT

Fashion retailer H&M is to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create digital "twins" of 30 models.

[...]

Generative AI can create photo-realistic images in response to simple text prompts at high speed and low cost.

Because of this, it has been seized upon by many industries and firms as a way to meet demands for content such as marketing material.

But its use by fashion and beauty brands has sparked backlash amid concerns its increased adoption could reduce job opportunities.

Some fear it may lead to less work for production staff on photoshoots, including photographers, stylists, make-up artists and lighting assistants.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vwg73xndeo

[firestar464]

I realized that I and a lot of the people on this forum are left accelerationists.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Famed AI researcher launches controversial startup to replace all human workers everywhere

April 19, 2025

Every now and then, a Silicon Valley startup launches with such an “absurdly” described mission that it’s difficult to discern if the startup is for real or just satire.

Such is the case with Mechanize, a startup whose founder — and the non-profit AI research organization he founded called Epoch — is being skewered on X after he announced it.

Complaints encompass both the startup’s mission, and the implication that it sullies the reputation of his well-respected research institute. (A director at the research institute even posted on X, “Yay just what I wanted for my bday: a comms crisis.”)

Mechanize was launched on Thursday via a post on X by its founder, famed AI researcher Tamay Besiroglu. The startup’s goal, Besiroglu wrote, is “the full automation of all work” and “the full automation of the economy.”

Does that mean Mechanize is working to replace every human worker with an AI agent bot? Essentially, yes. The startup wants to provide the data, evaluations, and digital environments to make worker automation of any job possible.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/19/famed ... verywhere/

[zzz]

It would not have been controversial (or relevant) only ten yeas ago.