automation

Walmart thought building robots to track stores' inventories would make things easier, but the project ultirmately fell short.

Bye, Bots

An ambitious push to automate its stores fell flat.

Walmart Is Giving Up on Its Inventory Robots

Would having a robot draw your blood make the process easier? Thanks to engineers at Rutgers University that may soon be an option.

Nurse Ratchet 

This little bot wants your blood.

Engineers Built an AI-Powered Robot to Take Your Blood

Makr Shakr, the company behind a robot bartender called Toni, says it will offer monthly stipends to displaced workers for every robot it sells.

Severance Package

Makr Shakr says it'll give out a new monthly stipend for every robot it sells.

Robot Bartender Developer Wants to Pay the Humans It Replaces

Future studies researcher Roey Tzezana says workplace automation will mean the destruction of the middle class and the "end of the world as we know it."

Hollowing Out

"This figure is the end of the world for the average people."

Futurist Predicts “The End of the World as We Know It”

Four Japanese people agreed to give up their privacy and let cameras record their every move at home for a month for 200,000 yen, or $1,830.

Cost of Living

Cameras will record them everywhere but the bathroom for an entire month.

This Company Is Paying People $1,830 to Film Them Constantly

Switching to a four-day workweek boosted productivity by nearly 40 percent at Microsoft Japan, a sign that the change could benefit employers and employees.

Long Weekends

It also cut down on the company's environmental impact.

Microsoft Japan Tried a Four-Day Workweek. Productivity Spiked.

The AI systems now used to grade essays on standardized tests in 21 states are deeply flawed, according to a new Motherboard investigation.

Down Grade

And the systems are doing a terrible job.

21 States Are Using AI to Grade Essays on Standardized Tests

A small survey shows that most Chinese workers would prefer to be managed by an impartial AI algorithm than a human, in a positive twist on job automation.

"Loving And Gratifying"

Middle managers: consider yourselves warned.

88 Percent of Chinese Workers Would Prefer a Robot Boss

Researchers created an autonomous roofing drone by strapping a nail gun to an octocopter and using cameras and markers to teach it where to place nails.

Heads Up

There’s no way this could go wrong.

Researchers Strapped a Nail Gun to an Autonomous Drone

A pharmacy call center has deployed AI that coaches human employees how to have more empathy with frustrated customers on the phone.

Sub-optimal Cheeriness Detected

Normally the emotion education works the other way around.

In a Strange Twist, This AI Tries to Teach Empathy to Humans

Truck drivers in Missouri are trying to get self-driving trucks banned in the state over concerns that they would get automated out of a job.

Truck Rally

"Most of these people coming in today are literally a week out of being out of business."

Truckers Want to Ban Self-Driving Trucks in Missouri

Most people would rather lose their job to automation than to another human, according to a newly published study out of Germany.