Technological Unemployment News & Discussions

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caltrek
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Don't mourn, organize.

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Performers Worry Artificial Intelligence Will Take Their Jobs

June 09, 2023

Leaders of the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union say the group’s members are concerned that they will lose work because of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, tools.

The labor organization started talks with Hollywood movie studios about a new contract this week.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the main person speaking with movie studios on behalf of the actors. He is SAG-AFTRA’s negotiator.

He said people who work in movies have their stock-in-trade, or their special qualities that make them different from another actor. He listed an actor’s name, voice, personality and likeness when describing those qualities. Crabtree-Ireland wants to be sure actors keep making money from their special qualities.

For example, the labor organization wants to prevent movie production companies from taking an actor’s image in one movie and using it to create a “digital double” for a new movie.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/p ... 25634.html
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funkervogt
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Robot can attach eyelash extensions onto people cheaper than human cosmetologists.

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Kenya's tea pickers are destroying the machines replacing them

Updated Jun 13, 2023, 4:47pm GMT+1

KERICHO, Kenya — Kenyan tea pickers are destroying machines brought in to replace them during violent protests that highlight the challenge faced by low-skilled workers as more agribusiness companies rely on automation to cut costs.

At least 10 tea-plucking machines have been torched in multiple flashpoints in the past year, according to local media reports. Recent demonstrations have left one protester dead and several injured, including 23 police officers and farm workers. The Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) estimated the cost of damaged machinery at $1.2 million (170 million Kenyan shillings) after nine machines belonging to Ekaterra, makers of the top-selling tea brand Lipton, were destroyed in May.

In March, a local government taskforce recommended that tea companies in Kericho, the country’s largest tea-growing town, adopt a new 60:40 ratio of mechanized tea harvesting to hand-plucking. The taskforce also wants legislation passed to limit importation of tea harvesting machines. Nicholas Kirui, a member of the taskforce and former CEO of KTGA, told Semafor Africa 30,000 jobs had been lost to mechanization in Kericho county alone over the past decade.

"We did public participation in all the wards and with all the different groups, and the overwhelming sentiment we were hearing was that the machines should go," Kirui said.

In 2021, Kenya exported tea worth $1.2 billion, making it the third-largest tea exporter globally, behind China and Sri Lanka. Multinationals including Browns Investments, George Williamson and Ekaterra — which was sold by Unilever to a private equity firm in July 2022 — plant on an estimated 200,000 acres in Kericho and have all adopted mechanized harvesting.

https://www.semafor.com/article/06/13/2 ... y-machines
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The result is legislation with little connection to the derailment, or to any other derailments for that matter. Indeed, it appears to push pet projects that legislators wanted all along without any reckoning of costs and benefits. In consequence, says University of Dayton professor Michael F. Gorman in a new paper, none of the bill's detailed prescriptions and rules "would reduce the risk of a serious accident involving the transport of hazardous material. Taken together, they will likely result in an inferior outcome to the status quo."

This is not surprising. What the bill does have is an awful lot in it for unions to like. For instance, it would freeze train crew sizes (the opposite of efficiency and something unions were demanding long before the derailment) and require more inspections that can only be performed by, you guessed it, union workers.

These regulations might appeal to some people, but let's not pretend they will make the railroad industry more effective. Instead, they would make freight more expensive, potentially pushing more of it toward trucking (a dirty and more dangerous mode of transport). More frustrating is that none of these measures would prevent what is the leading cause of derailment in the United States—namely, human error.

The solution to human error is more automation rather than more people. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials earlier in May, the Reason Foundation's Marc Scribner explained how rail safety can be greatly enhanced through automated track inspection and automated train operations. He also noted that the search for improved safety above and beyond what regulators require of the rail industry—improvement chiefly through automation—is already well underway.
https://reason.com/2023/06/15/the-rail- ... ot-safety/
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US Employment Rate
In January 60.20%
In February 60.20%
In March 60.40%
In April 60.40%
In May 60.30%

Australia Employment Rate
In January 64.2%
In February 64.3%
In March 64.5%
In April 64.3%
In May 64.5%



I am starting from January 2023 so each time a year passes I can replace months for that year with the yearly average. It is also after covid recovery and before AI has any impact. (I might later include a yearly average for a year such as 2022 or 2019 if technological unemployment happens this year.)

Lowest US has been since 1948 aka covid crash is 51.30

So low 50s = $hit hitting the fan.
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funkervogt
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Biden's expensive plan to bring back factory jobs to the U.S. will fail.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/worl ... 51408.html
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SAG strike: Hollywood actors walk out over pay and AI worries

1 hour ago

Hollywood actors have joined a strike by screenwriters in the industry's biggest shutdown for more than 60 years.

Some 160,000 performers stopped work at midnight in Los Angeles, bringing to a halt most US film and TV productions.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) wants streaming giants to agree to a fairer split of profits and better working conditions.

It also wants to protect actors from being usurped by digital replicas.

The union is seeking guarantees that artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-generated faces and voices will not be used to replace actors.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66196357
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