<h2>At-Risk Cities</h2>
<p>Experts have predicted that <a href="https://futurism.com/new-chart-proves-automation-serious-threat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">automation</a> will take over a large number of jobs in the future, and now, a United Kingdom-based think-tank has analyzed the potential impact of automation in the U.K. Their newly released report confirms this vision of the future, while also highlighting the areas of the nation likely to be hardest hit.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.centreforcities.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Centre for Cities&#8217;</a> <a href="http://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Cities Outlook 2018&#8221; report</a> maps out how likely various urban centers in the U.K. are to experience job displacement due to intelligent automation. They determined that 20.2 percent of all workers in the nation&#8217;s 63 largest urban areas could be replaced by 2030.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a total of roughly 3.6 million jobs, and according to the report, the cities in the nation&#8217;s northern, least wealthy areas are likely to be most affected.</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/09/automation_home.png" alt="Will Automation Steal My Job?" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>Automation tends to affect administrative jobs, retail sales, customer services, and warehouse work. Those fields account for roughly 30 percent of jobs in Mansfield, the city likely to be hit the hardest by automation. Some 16 percent of workers in the Nottinghamshire town works in retail, while one in every 10 employees holds a job in a warehouse or as an admin.</p>
<p>Sunderland, Wakefield, Stoke, and Doncaster aren&#8217;t far behind Mansfield in terms of jobs at risk of automation. Meanwhile, Oxford and Cambridge, two cities in the U.K&#8217;s southern region, are expected to lose roughly 13 percent of jobs to machines, making them the least vulnerable cities.</p>
<h2>A Global Trend</h2>
<p>The Centre for Cities&#8217; report is not the first to consider the impact of automation in the U.K. — <a href="https://futurism.com/nation-expected-to-lose-30-of-jobs-to-automation-in-15-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a 2017 report</a> from PricewaterhouseCooper predicted that 30 percent of jobs across the nation will be automated in the next 15 years.</p>
<p>Predictions for outside of the U.K. aren&#8217;t any better. In the U.S., job loss estimates range from <a href="https://futurism.com/mckinsey-finds-automation-eradicate-third-americas-workforce-2030/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">33 percent of jobs</a> by 2030 to <a href="http://www.eng.ox.ac.uk/about/news/new-study-shows-nearly-half-of-us-jobs-at-risk-of-computerisation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">47 percent of jobs</a> by 2033. <a href="https://futurism.com/137-million-southeast-asian-workers-could-lose-their-jobs-to-automation-in-the-next-20-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Around 137 million workers in Southeast Asia</a> could lose their jobs to automation within the same period.</p>
<p>Automation is also likely to affect a wide range of jobs, not just those considered <a href="https://futurism.com/the-automation-upheaval-wont-be-limited-to-blue-collar-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blue collar</a>. Globally, the industries most likely to experience <a href="https://futurism.com/workers-in-these-five-industries-will-be-the-first-to-lose-their-jobs-to-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">larger-scale worker displacement</a> are transportation, sales and customer service, logistics, and healthcare.</p>
<p>According to the Centre for Cities&#8217; report, the jobs most at risk of automation are those in which workers mainly complete routine tasks. Conversely, jobs that require workers to use their cognitive skills and interpersonal communication abilities could see growth.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WSKi8HfcxEk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>While some are doing their best to <a href="https://futurism.com/new-york-taxi-drivers-call-for-a-50-year-ban/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">halt automation</a>, many experts suggest we should instead be focused on enacting policies that enable humans to work alongside machines.</p>
<p>Ben Bradley, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield, believes investing in training could help address problems caused by automation in the U.K. “It’s vital that places like Mansfield, where automation could have a big impact, are the focus for skills and investment in education,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/29/automation-to-take-1-in-3-jobs-in-uks-northern-centres-report-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he told </a><i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/29/automation-to-take-1-in-3-jobs-in-uks-northern-centres-report-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a></i>.</p>
<p>A number of experts agree that <a href="https://futurism.com/expert-asserts-that-retraining-is-the-best-response-to-ai-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">education and retraining</a> are our best hope for <a href="https://futurism.com/world-bank-chief-robots-have-put-us-on-a-dangerous-crash-course/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coping with automation</a>. Canada plans to <a href="https://futurism.com/canada-heres-how-were-preparing-automation-human-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invest in both</a>, and a number of <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/future-of-organizations-and-work/retraining-and-reskilling-workers-in-the-age-of-automation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private companies</a> are pursuing similar initiatives.</p>
<p>Education, however, isn&#8217;t the only option worth considering. Among the potential solutions to widespread automation are the establishment of some form of<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-automation-will-force-governments-to-introduce-universal-basic-income/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> universal basic income (UBI)</a> or the creation of <a href="https://futurism.com/san-francisco-might-soon-tax-robots-but-who-does-it-benefit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tax on robots</a>.</p>
<p>At any rate, <a href="https://futurism.com/if-we-dont-regulate-automation-it-could-decimate-the-u-s-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the trend is rather clear</a>. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, automation is one of the biggest issues facing the future of employment, and if we don&#8217;t want huge swathes of people to find themselves jobless in the not-so-distant future, we need to do something to address it right now.</p>


By 2030, 3.6 million workers could lose their jobs to automation.

Automation will replace a staggering number of workers in major cities

Future Society

A new report focused on automation in the U.K. concludes that 3.6 million workers in the nation's biggest cities could be replaced by 2030.

Automation Will Replace a Staggering Number of Workers in Major Cities

The most vulnerable cities are also the least wealthy.

<h2>A Reality We Can&#8217;t Ignore</h2>
<p>By 2030, a little over ten years from now, as much as 30 percent of work done globally could be automated. This estimation is according to the latest report published by private sector think-tank<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)</a> which assessed the effects of automation in various socioeconomic environments.</p>
<p>The new report, entitled <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/global%20themes/future%20of%20organizations/what%20the%20future%20of%20work%20will%20mean%20for%20jobs%20skills%20and%20wages/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-full-report.ashx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation,&#8221;</a> builds on<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/digital-disruption/harnessing-automation-for-a-future-that-works" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> previous MGI research</a> published in January of 2017. It suggests that as many as 375 million human workers could end up shifting jobs or learning new skills as a result of intelligent automation. These numbers depend, of course, on how fast automation occurs.</p>
<p>The MGI researchers do agree that the jobs &#8220;most susceptible to automation include physical ones in predictable environments, such as operating machinery and preparing fast food,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/future-of-organizations-and-work/what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages?utm_content=buffer6b309&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=linkedin.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a write-up on the latest report</a>. &#8220;Collecting and processing data are two other categories of activities that increasingly can be done better and faster with machines. This could displace large amounts of labor—for instance, in mortgage origination, paralegal work, accounting, and back-office transaction processing.&#8221;</p>
<p>But, while MGI noted that automation wouldn&#8217;t affect countries in a uniform way, the total number of jobs lost all over the world could reach as many as 800 million. In short, job displacement due to intelligent automation is <a href="https://futurism.com/a-timeline-to-unemployment-when-will-robots-really-replace-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an inevitable reality</a>, primarily driven by the economic benefits that result from labor efficiency when machines take over human jobs.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WSKi8HfcxEk?start=2&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Not the End of Human Labor</h2>
<p><a href="https://futurism.com/workers-in-these-five-industries-will-be-the-first-to-lose-their-jobs-to-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Previous predictions</a> have estimated <a href="https://futurism.com/nation-expected-to-lose-30-of-jobs-to-automation-in-15-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">very similar numbers</a> to the MGI report about <a href="https://futurism.com/the-automation-upheaval-wont-be-limited-to-blue-collar-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the effects of automation</a> in the next five, ten, or even fifteen years. But, where experts differ in opinion is on how best to move forward. According to MGI, automation would eventually give rise to newer jobs, depending on the specific circumstances of particular nations.</p>
<p>The report puts it this way:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our findings suggest that several trends that may serve as catalysts of future labor demand could create demand for millions of jobs by 2030. These trends include caring for others in aging societies, raising energy efficiency and meeting climate challenges, producing goods and services for the expanding consuming class, especially in developing countries, not to mention the investment in technology, infrastructure, and buildings needed in all countries. Taken from another angle, we also find that a growing and dynamic economy—in part fueled by technology itself and its contributions to productivity—would create jobs.</p></blockquote>
<p>Some experts, including <a href="https://futurism.com/ray-kurzweil-says-machines-wont-take-over-our-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google chief engineer and singularity enthusiast Ray Kurzweil</a>, have expressed similar optimism. According to this line of thinking, there will be new jobs ahead, although we might not know what these are just yet. &#8220;These jobs would result from growth in current occupations due to demand and the creation of new types of occupations that may not have existed before, as has happened historically,&#8221; MGI&#8217;s experts wrote. &#8220;This job growth (jobs gained) could more than offset the jobs lost to automation.&#8221;</p>
<p>In this regard, one of the proposed ways to manage the effects of automation is education and the retraining of the human worker. In a recent speech, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim spoke about <a href="https://futurism.com/world-bank-chief-robots-have-put-us-on-a-dangerous-crash-course/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the need for investing in education</a> to prepare for worldwide automation. <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/04/bill-gates-wrong-solution-ai-taking-jobs-training-not-taxes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In an article for </a><i><a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/04/bill-gates-wrong-solution-ai-taking-jobs-training-not-taxes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WIRED</a></i>, IBM&#8217;s Watson senior VP David Kenny even argued that the responsibility for this education and retraining falls squarely on the shoulders of companies, not just formal education systems.</p>
<p><a href="https://futurism.com/former-google-china-president-ai-take-jobs-sooner-than-expected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee</a> also expressed the importance of retraining in order to help the displaced human worker adapt to relevant professions. But Lee isn&#8217;t so keen on universal basic income (UBI), which many — including <a href="https://futurism.com/economics-nobel-prize-winners-are-advocating-for-universal-basic-income/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economics Nobel laureates</a> and tech billionaires like <a href="https://futurism.com/richard-branson-universal-basic-income-will-protect-us-from-the-threat-of-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson </a>and <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-automation-will-force-governments-to-introduce-universal-basic-income/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk </a>— have considered to be a potentially viable economic solution that could cushion the effects of unemployment due to automation.</p>
<p>At the same time, others are considering the possibility of <a href="https://futurism.com/ubi-universal-basic-income-alternative/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compensating people for the data they provide</a> companies as an alternative to UBI. There is also the suggestion that<a href="https://futurism.com/san-francisco-might-soon-tax-robots-but-who-does-it-benefit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> robots should be taxed</a> in order to compensate the human worker whose job they took over.</p>
<p>At any rate, MGI&#8217;s report remains largely optimistic. While automation is inevitable, it doesn&#8217;t spell the end of the human worker. &#8220;History would suggest that such fears may be unfounded: over time, labor markets adjust to changes in demand for workers from technological disruptions, although at times with depressed real wages,&#8221; the report reads. How many jobs are left for humankind, however, will depend on how we prepare for the worldwide spread of automation.</p>


McKinsey finds automation could eradicate a third of America's workforce by 2030

Worker on car production line in car factory

Robots & Machines

A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute suggests that 30 percent of jobs on Earth could be automated in less than fifteen years.

McKinsey Finds Automation Could Eradicate a Third of America's Workforce by 2030

800 million jobs could be lost worldwide.

McKinsey Finds Automation Could Eradicate a Third of America’s Workforce by 2030

<h2>The AI Business Sector</h2>
<p>Without a doubt, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how we do things. From today&#8217;s iterations that power apps in your smartphone, to promises of <a href="https://futurism.com/softbank-ceo-promises-super-artificial-intelligences-with-iq-of-10000-in-30-years/">super-intelligent AI</a> in the next few decades, more companies are pushing for integrating AI technology into what they do. All of this means that there could soon be a new AI business sector thanks to an explosion of innovation, according to Bruce Aust, vice chairman of the U.S. stock exchange Nasdaq.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/07/a-i-could-produce-a-new-sector-nasdaq-vice-chairman-says.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Speaking to </a><i><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/07/a-i-could-produce-a-new-sector-nasdaq-vice-chairman-says.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNBC</a></i> at the ongoing <a href="https://websummit.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web Summit conference</a> in Lisbon, Portugal, Aust predicts that AI could lead to the creation of completely new industries or sectors. &#8220;I think AI is really going to be the technology behind a lot of these great companies that provide the innovations that will be a new sector we probably don&#8217;t know about yet,&#8221; the Nasdaq chief said.</p>
<p>By AI, we don&#8217;t just mean having a smart virtual assistant like Alexa and Siri, or a dedicated AI like DeepMind. AI in business is more the &#8220;under the hood&#8221; type. Already, AI is taking center stage in some of the biggest names in tech, including the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple.</p>
<p>Then, there&#8217;s the growing self-driving vehicle industry, which Aust used as an example. &#8220;You look at autonomous vehicles, things like that, they really do use a lot of artificial intelligence too,&#8221; he told <i>CNBC</i>. &#8220;So I think we&#8217;re excited about the early stage companies that are here, and we hope that eventually they&#8217;ll come to market and list on Nasdaq one day.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Innovation for Automation</h2>
<p>On the other side of this development, however, is the ever-present threat of <a href="https://futurism.com/new-chart-proves-automation-serious-threat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unemployment due to intelligent automation</a>. Smart machines are going to take over a number of jobs from multiple industries, particularly those in so-called blue collar work. Some might point out that it&#8217;s already begun, with companies <a href="https://futurism.com/worlds-largest-hedge-fund-is-completely-automating-management-and-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hiring a more automated workforce</a>.</p>
<p>Job displacement by intelligent machines have caused some experts to warn about the problems AI could bring. More recently, physicist Stephen Hawking once again put these concerns forward in<a href="https://futurism.com/stephen-hawking-ai-replace-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> a recent interview with </a><i><a href="https://futurism.com/stephen-hawking-ai-replace-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WIRED</a></i>, where he warned about AI replacing humans — and he wasn&#8217;t just talking about jobs. And just like Hawking, Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk also has <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-reminds-us-of-the-possible-dangers-of-unregulated-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">misgivings over the development of AI</a>; however, he said that intelligent automation isn&#8217;t necessarily something to be feared. (You need only visit his factories to watch robots working in the Model 3 production line.) Instead, Musk has always <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-says-deep-ai-not-automation-poses-the-real-risk-for-humanity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned about the threat of super-intelligent or deep AI</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that AI could be &#8220;applied to really enhance and modernize a lot of things that we&#8217;re doing today,&#8221; Aust said. AI won&#8217;t stop at just taking over jobs. Instead, it&#8217;ll go on to create more jobs. Just as Google&#8217;s chief engineer <a href="https://futurism.com/ray-kurzweil-says-machines-wont-take-over-our-jobs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ray Kurzweil previously pointed out</a>, by the time AI becomes super-intelligent, there should be new jobs for human beings to work in alongside it.</p>


This industry will likely need to address humans displaced from their jobs by new tech.

Nasdaq vice chairman: AI business sector will come from future tech

Artificial Intelligence

Speaking to CNBC, Nasdaq vice chairman Bruce Aust said that a new AI business sector would likely result from technologies that don't yet exist.

Nasdaq Vice Chairman: AI Business Sector Will Come from Future Tech

Artificial intelligence will drive innovation. 

<h2>When Robots Work</h2>
<p>When Microsoft co-founder (now billionaire philanthropist) <a href="https://futurism.com/bill-gates-says-job-stealing-robots-need-to-pay-taxes/" target="_blank">Bill Gates spoke about a robot tax</a>, San Francisco city supervisor Jane Kim heard him — or, at least, she <a href="https://qz.com/911968/bill-gates-the-robot-that-takes-your-job-should-pay-taxes/" target="_blank">read about it</a>. Now, Kim has been pushing for a robot tax in the home state of Silicon Valley, and she&#8217;s been up and about talking to the leaders of the tech industry, various labor groups throughout the state, and to public policy makers figuring out how best to implement a robot tax.</p>
<p>But what does it mean to tax robots? For the ordinary worker, the tax one pays the government gets spent on various programs that (ideally) ends up servicing the tax-paying individual — be it as an infrastructural project, through social services, or even as salary for public servants.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FSGrNlJBHUo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>A robot tax, on the other hand, won&#8217;t end up in robot social welfare. Instead, it would benefit the ordinary human worker whose job was taken over by an intelligent machine. For every human job lost to robot labor, companies have to pay the same amount of tax and social security that person was due. These could then be used to educate people for better work specifically allocated for human labor.</p>
<h2>A Potential Solution</h2>
<p>Essentially, the robot tax is security for the displaced human worker. &#8220;I really do think automation is going to be one of the biggest issues around income inequality,&#8221; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/growing-dilemma-automated-jobs-meet-social-consciousness-49605254" target="_blank">Kim told </a><i><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/growing-dilemma-automated-jobs-meet-social-consciousness-49605254" target="_blank">ABC News</a></i>. &#8220;It&#8217;s not inherently a bad thing, but it will concentrate wealth, and it&#8217;s going to drive further inequity if you don&#8217;t prepare for it now.&#8221;<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/this-is-the-future-of-robotics/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/02/Home-Thumb-Robot-Trends.jpg" alt="This is the Future: Robotics in 2016 and Beyond" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/this-is-the-future-of-robotics/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure></p>
<p>But not everyone shares this idea. Some, like <a href="https://futurism.com/the-u-s-secretary-of-commerce-doesnt-think-we-should-tax-robots/" target="_blank">U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross</a>, see a robot tax as a potential deterrent for businesses looking to opt for more efficient labor via automation. Ross previously said he&#8217;s not for holding back technological advances, worrying that if the U.S. doesn&#8217;t pick up on intelligent automation, the rest of the world will.</p>
<p>Is it really that bad to tax robots? Perhaps not. As Gates pointed out, it&#8217;s a way to transition towards automated technologies. The human worker can&#8217;t be left behind, and a robot tax would make sure that he isn&#8217;t. <a href="https://futurism.com/taxing-robots-and-free-money-in-a-future-of-job-automation/" target="_blank">Together with some form of basic income</a>, a robot tax might just be what we need for technology to diversify its application in society, without sending humans up the river <em>sans</em> paddle.</p>


A San Francisco city supervisor has been actively pushing for a robot tax to be implemented in the state.

San Francisco might soon tax robots, but who does it benefit?

San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim is pushing for a robot tax on her city. But what are the consequences, of both implementing and rejecting a robot tax?

San Francisco Might Soon Tax Robots, but Who Does It Benefit?

As automation continues to displace human labor, who will pay the price?

<h2>Benefiting Whom, Exactly?</h2>
<p>The desire for a higher wage is pretty self explanatory. However, the impact a minimum wage increase could have on society is not so clear.</p>
<p>In an effort to shed light on this subject, researchers at the <a href="http://www.nber.org/" target="_blank">National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)</a> conducted <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w23667" target="_blank">a study</a>, and they&#8217;ve concluded that a minimum wage hike might not necessarily lead to happier workers. In fact, it could lead to fewer workers as such an increase has historically resulted in the loss of more jobs to automation.</p>
<p>For this study, authors Grace Lordan of the <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/" target="_blank">London School of Economics</a> and David Neumark of the <a href="https://uci.edu/" target="_blank">University of California, Irvine</a> looked at minimum wage changes in the United States from 1980 to 2015. They realized that these changes affected the number of so-called &#8220;low-skill&#8221; or minimum wage jobs — such as packing boxes or using sewing machines — in various industries in the country.</p>
<p>In other words, if a wage hike meant it would cost more to hire a human to do a job than it would to have a machine do it, employers often chose the machine.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SV6bKri_2Ao?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8220;Based on [current population survey] data from 1980-2015, we find that increasing the minimum wage decreases significantly the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled workers, and increases the likelihood that low-skilled workers in automatable jobs become unemployed,&#8221; the authors wrote in the paper&#8217;s abstract.</p>
<p>The researchers determined that a $1 minimum wage increase led to a 0.43 percent decline in automatable jobs. Such a wage increase led to a full one percent decline in the case of manufacturing, and older, low-skilled workers employed in that industry were particularly likely to be negatively affected by the wage increase.</p>
<p>A loss of just .43 percent of jobs may not seem like much, but it translates to &#8220;millions of jobs across the entire U.S. economy,&#8221; <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608636/increasing-minimum-wage-puts-more-jobs-at-risk-of-automation/" target="_blank">according to </a><i><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/608636/increasing-minimum-wage-puts-more-jobs-at-risk-of-automation/" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review</a></i>.</p>
<h2>The Cost of Automation</h2>
<p>While the current federal minimum wage in the U.S. has remained unchanged since 2009 — $7.25 an hour — 30 states have higher minimum wage laws. These are, of course, meant to ensure that the &#8220;minimum wage&#8221; is the same as the &#8220;living wage&#8221; — the amount of money a person needs to earn to be able to afford such expenses as rent, food, and other necessities.</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/09/automation_home.png" alt="Will Automation Steal My Job?" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>However, as the NBER study showed, such wage policies should be carefully considered in the face of intelligent automation. Legislators must ask themselves if increasing the minimum wage would help workers keep their jobs or speed up losses due to automation.</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s automated systems <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-can-likely-already-do-your-job-better-than-you-can/" target="_blank">are more intelligent than ever before</a>, and machines are now capable of performing even <a href="https://futurism.com/the-automation-upheaval-wont-be-limited-to-blue-collar-jobs/" target="_blank">higher-skill jobs</a> thanks to advances in <a href="https://futurism.com/deep-learning-is-going-to-teach-us-all-the-lesson-of-our-lives-jobs-are-for-machines/" target="_blank">artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics</a>. In short, today&#8217;s machines are far more advanced than the ones available to employers during the three decades covered in the NBER study.</p>
<p>A number of industries in the U.S. have already started feeling the effects of automation. From <a href="https://futurism.com/at-amazons-new-grocery-store-ai-takes-over-cashier-jobs/" target="_blank">Amazon&#8217;s &#8220;employee-less&#8221; grocery store</a> to the factories using <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="73858" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">autonomous vehicles</span> to <a href="https://futurism.com/were-one-step-closer-to-self-driving-workers-taking-over-factories/" target="_blank">transport goods</a>, workplaces that feature <a href="https://futurism.com/new-study-finds-that-six-jobs-are-lost-for-every-robot-added-to-the-workforce/" target="_blank">routinized tasks</a> are already turning to automated systems.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PSVkW53AK8g?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Experts predict this trend will speed up over the coming years and decades. <a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/ukeo/pwcukeo-section-4-automation-march-2017-v2.pdf" target="_blank">According to a recent study</a> by consultancy firm <a href="http://www.pwc.com/" target="_blank">PricewaterhouseCoopers,</a> 40 percent of jobs in the U.S. are at a high risk of being taken over by robots by 2030. In the U.K., some 30 percent of jobs are vulnerable, while Germany and Japan could lose 35 percent and 21 percent, respectively.</p>
<p>While troubling, studies like these serve a valuable purpose as they give us time to prepare for the future effects of automation before we&#8217;re actually living with them. As long as we pursue ways to <a href="https://futurism.com/automation-may-lead-to-a-workless-future-for-humans-heres-how-we-can-cope/" target="_blank">mitigate the increased use of automated systems</a> — perhaps through <a href="https://futurism.com/experts-think-ubi-is-the-solution-to-automation-this-year-well-find-out/" target="_blank">universal basic income (UBI) trials</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/solution-automation-workforce-retraining/" target="_blank">retraining</a> or <a href="https://futurism.com/with-automation-looming-the-us-needs-to-make-education-affordable-or-fail/" target="_blank">education programs</a>, or <a href="https://futurism.com/taxing-robots-and-free-money-in-a-future-of-job-automation/" target="_blank">taxes on robots</a> — the world will be able to <a href="https://futurism.com/71680-2/" target="_blank">benefit from the technology</a>.</p>


Low-skilled workers might not benefit from a higher minimum wage.

Many different currencies

Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research have published a paper noting a relationship between automation and the minimum wage.

Study Shows That Minimum Wage Hikes Put More Jobs at Risk of Automation

A $1 increase results in a 0.43 percent decline in automatable jobs.

In this age of technological revolution, how can we reorganize societies so that we can do the things that we want to do?

Watch: How A.I. Will Deliver Universal Basic Income, Better Jobs, and Kinder Corporations

<h2>Cuban&#8217;s Warning</h2>
<p>Mark Cuban warned against the potential dangers that <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="58570" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">artificial intelligence</span> (AI) poses to the work force, asserting during<a href="http://www.ozy.com/pov/confessions-of-a-billionaire-real-talk-with-mark-cuban/79860" target="_blank"> a one-to-one question session at OZY Fest</a> on Sunday that:</p>
<blockquote><p>There&#8217;s going to be a lot of unemployed people replaced with technology and if we don&#8217;t start dealing with that now, we&#8217;re going to have some real problems.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cuban added that he hasn&#8217;t seen an equal transformation to the workforce in recent memory:</p>
<blockquote><p>We’re going through a transitional period where we’ll see more disruption driven by artificial intelligence than we’ve seen in the last 30 years.</p></blockquote>
<p>It is the latest in a series of warnings that the sports tycoon has issued about the 21st Century&#8217;s AI revolution. In <a href="https://futurism.com/mark-cuban-we-need-to-prepare-for-when-robots-replace-human-workers/" target="_blank">February Cuban Tweeted</a> that &#8220;Automation is going to cause unemployment and we need to prepare for it&#8221; — but, unlike others, he disagrees that <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="67223" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">universal basic income (UBI)</span> is a solution to this, <a href="https://futurism.com/mark-cuban-universal-basic-income-is-the-worst-possible-response/" target="_blank">Tweeting that</a> it is &#8220;one of the worst possible responses&#8221; to the potential crisis.</p>
<h2>Solutions to Automation?</h2>
<p>Cuban joins other industry leaders in warning against AI. Bill Gates <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/31047780" target="_blank">told the BBC</a> that &#8220;the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.&#8221;</p>
<p>Stephen Hawking has also weighed in on the debate, apocalyptically <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/01/stephen-hawking-dangerous-time-planet-inequality" target="_blank">telling the Guardian that</a> &#8220;the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining.”</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/ai-forecast-for-2017/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/02/AI-forecast-HomeThumb.jpg" alt="AI Forecast for 2017" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/ai-forecast-for-2017/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>However, while leading figures in the technology industry agree that AI will he highly disruptive, they vary on their solutions to the problem. In contrast to Cuban — <a href="https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/833816963600228352">who Tweeted that</a> we should optimize existing support networks by making them &#8220;more efficient so more money can be distributed with far less overhead” — Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft, believes that <a href="https://futurism.com/bill-gates-says-job-stealing-robots-need-to-pay-taxes/" target="_blank">taxing robots is a temporary solution</a>. Gates believes UBI is a good long-term plan, <a href="https://futurism.com/4-bill-gates-thinks-countries-arent-ready-for-basic-income-yet/" target="_blank">although society is not ready for it yet</a>.</p>
<p>Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, is situated at the pro-UBI end of the spectrum, telling Harvard graduates that “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure that everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”</p>


Without quick action, AI will soon become a very disruptive force – and not in a good way.

In a recent speech, Mark Cuban argued that AI will replace a significant number of jobs, but he does not believe that universal basic income is a solution.

Mark Cuban Says AI Will be The Biggest Disruption to Jobs We’ve Seen in 30 Years

"If we don't start dealing with that now, we're going to have some real problems."

<p><a href="https://tmrwedition.com/2017/02/26/chances-are-artificial-intellience-can-already-do-your-job-better-than-you-can/">Automation will force most people out of a job</a> and society will eventually be forced to adopt some form of universal basic income. What then? What are people going to do when they no longer have to work?</p>
<p>Initially it seems like a nice problem to have as it will free people to do what they really want to do with their lives. But we define ourselves by how we contribute to society, for most people their career is the answer to who they are and what they do.</p>
<p>Some will spend all that extra time doing more of the things they already do with their free time: surfing the internet, watching movies and TV shows, and playing video games.</p>
<p>But there is an opportunity this future we are quickly hurtling towards will also create. Rather than just being passive consumers of content, people will all be able to become active participants in content creation.</p>
<figure style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/mg_8022-future-artists.jpg" alt="The Future Of The Entertainment Industry" width="600" height="434" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Source: Tomorrow Edition</figcaption></figure>
<h2>More User Created Experiences</h2>
<p>YouTube is the world’s third most visited site after Google(which also owns YouTube) and Facebook. <a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/">300 hours of video</a> are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and 3.25 billion hours of video are watched <a href="http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/">each month</a>. Gone are the days when we rely solely on giant studios and networks for our entertainment as increasingly people are turning to other people for content.</p>
<p>Online content creation has become an industry unto itself as the number of YouTube channels earning six figures has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/en-GB/statistics.html">increased by 50%</a> year on year. Digital marketplaces for a wide variety of content creators <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/speed101/the-future-of-work-with-digital-marketplaces">are coming online</a> allowing anyone who wants to become a digital entrepreneur.</p>
<p>This will impact how individual value is measured. Your worth will no longer come from the company you work for or the degree you have but by the popularity of your creations. A history of producing things people want will be all that has value.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBFLJuRDsKs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>The On-Demand Model</h2>
<p>Passive consumption will also continue to grow and will become even more appealing and addictive than it is today.</p>
<p>98 million people now have Netflix accounts and that number is growing rapidly. The company got here by understanding the importance of creating easy and addictive user experiences. They started in 1997 selling home deliver DVDs and in 2007 switched to become the go-to live streaming on-demand platform that has made them the largest internet television network in America.</p>
<p>However their plan is to become the biggest entertainment network on earth and to get there Netflix is now harnessing artificial intelligence to customize their user interface to fit each person’s unique tastes. Here is CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings in a talk titled “leveraging AI to make user experience &amp; entertainment addictive”.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w_T2ksz8FnY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Augmented Social Media</h2>
<p>Facebook just launched what they are calling ‘Act 2’, which is going to take the social media giant away from its core product, social media, and refocus its efforts on augmented reality and artificial intelligence.</p>
<p>In a talk on April 18th Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for the future of Facebook. He simultaneously launched the beta version of Facebook’s new augmented reality tool that will leverage their social media platforms; Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat and Instagram, to create the <a href="https://tmrwedition.com/2017/03/07/silicon-valley-is-fueling-the-push-for-global-governance-and-the-end-of-the-nation-state/">communities he has been talking about a lot lately</a>.</p>
<p>Underlying all of the augmented reality applications, as well as the new messaging service and the new VR social media platform that they are also rolling out is machine learning algorithms (AI). Zuckerberg stated in his address that the application of AI to all that Facebook is doing will eventually allow the platform to replace all of the hardware in the real world with digital versions of them that look and feel just as real.</p>
<p>Another critical part of this plan is to make these platforms open and allow for anyone who wants to contribute to the creation of all the content that will go into them.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CchpWBIA_S4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Virtual Video Gaming</h2>
<p>Already having <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/article/investing-in-video-games-this-industry-pulls-in-more-revenue-than-movies-music-cm634585">surpassed the film and music industries combined</a>, video games are poised to grow even faster in the decade to come with the rise of virtual and augmented reality. The continued rise of E-gaming and live stream gaming platforms like Twitch will further this trend, already last year <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/06/more-people-watched-league-of-legends-than-the-nba-finals/">more people watched the league of legends finals than the NBA finals</a>.</p>
<h2>Immersive Artificially Intelligent Entertainment</h2>
<p>The biggest game changer will eventually come from immersive artificially intelligent entertainment. Once AI becomes good at writing novel code it will be able to create virtual experiences that can be crafted to each user, writing movies for you as you watch them and writing games for you as you play them, making it possible that no two people will ever play the same game or watch the same movie.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3AO4tjAf4gU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>What kind of Future is all of this Creating?</h2>
<p>For those that recognize and take advantage of all these changes it means a shift away from passive consumption to active selection of entertainment and the ability to participate in the creation of content. For those that don’t adjust and get stuck in the passive consumption model of the past the future will probably look something like this…</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_xToQ4cIHkk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>


Automation will force most people out of a job and society will eventually be forced to adopt some form of universal basic income. What then?

The Entertainment Industry Could Address One of Our Biggest Concerns About Automation

What will people do when they no longer have to work?

<h2>Who&#8217;s The Ma</h2>
<p>Automation is changing society as we know it. The precipitating effects of <span class="wp-glossary wpg-tooltip" data-termid="58570" data-content="full" data-qtipstyle="dark">artificial intelligence</span> (AI) seem like a double-edged blade. While it&#8217;s certainly exciting to see <a href="https://futurism.com/this-robot-manipulates-objects-and-shares-what-it-learns-with-the-hive-mind/?src=featured" target="_blank">robots manipulate their environment</a> with a hive mind, it&#8217;s equally as terrifying to think about what these advancements <a href="https://futurism.com/stephen-hawking-automation-and-ai-is-going-to-decimate-middle-class-jobs/" target="_blank">mean for society over time</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an even stronger cause for concern when billionaire innovators like <a href="https://www.alibaba.com/" target="_blank">Alibaba&#8217;s</a> founder and chairman, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/" target="_blank">Jack Ma</a>, tell us to prepare for more &#8220;pain than happiness&#8221; in the coming decades due to the impact of AI and the internet. Ma has spoken at several entrepreneurship conferences on the topic, he believes that &#8220;social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WsQ7ysVt-0A?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>These &#8220;social conflicts&#8221; may potentially arise from the job disruptions caused by evolving automation. The Chinese businessman, who has a net worth of around $30 billion, explained his previous forecast <a href="http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2027744/e-commerce-will-become-traditional-business-says-alibabas-jack-ma" target="_blank">of e-commerce</a> taking traditional businesses by storm when he was lesser known — and it looks <a href="https://futurism.com/at-amazons-new-grocery-store-ai-takes-over-cashier-jobs/" target="_blank">like he was right</a>.</p>
<p>Now Ma is saying that in 30 years, &#8220;the Time Magazine cover for the best CEO of the year very likely will be a robot. It remembers better than you, it counts faster than you, and it won&#8217;t be angry with competitors.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Solutions For Society</h2>
<p>So, what do we do about it? Well, lucky for us, when a group of concerned billionaires put their minds and cash together to find solutions, things eventually fall into place. Enter everyone&#8217;s favorite Elon Musk, the visionary behind Tesla Motors, SolarCity, SpaceX, and many other technologically pioneering companies, who has come <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-just-outlined-how-hell-merge-the-human-brain-and-ai/">forward with his own plan</a>.</p>
<p>Musk intends to launch a brain-computer interface through his company, <a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" target="_blank">Neuralink</a>, so that humans can process information just as quickly as computers, making us competitive with AIs. Other innovators like Microsoft founder, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/01/28/bill-gates-on-dangers-of-artificial-intelligence-dont-understand-why-some-people-are-not-concerned/?utm_term=.52fab7ccf380" target="_blank">Bill Gates</a>, address similar concern, beseeching the world to pay attention.</p>
<p>But whatever countermeasure we may take, AI will inevitably take a greater share of our workload. In next 30 years we might just find a point in our society when <a href="https://futurism.com/i-dont-think-we-can-stop-it-the-future-of-automation-and-job-loss/">humans may not have much work</a> to do — not even our CEOs, like Ma pointed out.</p>


Mechanical gears turning in brain

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is warning us that the next 30 years of technological development may bring us more anguish than happiness.

Experts Assert That AI Will Soon Be Replacing CEOs

Your next boss may be an artificial intelligence.

<h2>Rising Automation</h2>
<p>For any manufacturer, one of the biggest overhead costs to consider is labor. But in China, which has been particularly aggressive in their attempts to shift towards automation for better efficiency, a company has found a way to tap into the inherent advantages of robots to address this concern.</p>
<p>Shipping company Shentong Express has managed to slash labor costs in half by using sorting robots developed by Hikvision. In the video below, you can see these robots shuttling around an eastern China warehouse, each one taking a parcel from a human working before it goes into a scanner and takes the package to a chute ready for shipping.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_QndP_PCRSw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The tiny robots are capable of sorting up to 200,000 packages a day; and because they are equipped to self-charge, they can operate 24/7. To that end, a Shentong Express spokesperson notes to the <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2086662/chinese-firm-cuts-costs-hiring-army-robots-sort-out-200000">South China Morning Post</a> that this has not only helped the company cut labor costs by half, but also managed to improve efficiency by 30 percent and maximize sorting accuracy.</p>
<p>Right now, the robots are being used in two Hangzhou centers, but the company is looking to deploy the robots in their largest locations.</p>
<h2>The Threat of Automation</h2>
<p>Perhaps no other country is more focused on shifting to automation and replacing human workers with machines than China, especially given that the output of industrial robots in the country rose by 30.4 percent in 2016. Earlier this year, a <a href="https://futurism.com/2-production-soars-for-chinese-factory-who-replaced-90-of-employees-with-robots/">Chinese factory replaced 90 percent</a> of its human workforce with automated machines, resulting in a 250 percent increase in productivity and 80 percent drop in defects. Foxconn, an Apple supplier, <a href="https://futurism.com/apple-supplier-just-cut-60000-jobs-replaces-factory-workers-with-robots/">also cut 60,000 jobs and replaced them with robots</a>.</p>
<p>To that end, China’s five-year plan is targeting production of these robots to reach 100,000 by 2020. This means that as the world continues to achieve unprecedented levels of advancement in AI and robotics, it will likely cause the displacement of thousands of human workers in favor of automated efficiency. Already, 137 million workers across five Southeast Asian countries are in danger of being <a href="https://futurism.com/137-million-southeast-asian-workers-could-lose-their-jobs-to-automation-in-the-next-20-years/">displaced by automated systems</a> in the next 20 years.</p>
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/09/automation_home.png" alt="Will Automation Steal My Job?" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><strong><a href="https://futurism.com/images/will-automation-steal-my-job/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></strong></figure>
<p>“Countries that compete on low-wage labour need to reposition themselves — price advantage is no longer enough,” <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southeast-asia-jobs-idUSKCN0ZN0HP">said Deborah France-Massin</a>, director for the ILO’s bureau for employers’ activities. “Robots are becoming better at assembly, cheaper, and increasingly able to collaborate with people,” the ILO said.</p>
<p>Experts are urging everyone to start talking about the implications of automation now — and the conversation doesn’t have to center on how the world can resist automation, but more on how we can embrace robotics and ensure that the <a href="https://futurism.com/three-major-reasons-automation-wont-leave-you-unemployed/">human population is not left unemployed</a>. <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-automation-will-force-governments-to-introduce-universal-basic-income/">Universal basic income</a> may be the solution here.</p>


Not only are the machines cheaper than the cost of human workers, they are also more efficient and accurate and are able to sort 200,000 packages a day.

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