Will Robots Take Our Jobs?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's robots may lack emotions, but they have quite a knack for rousing heated passions within their prevailing meaty overlords. Ray Kurzweil and his devotees daydream of a singularity rapture, when benevolent machine intelligence will overtake human knowledge to saturate and awaken the universe. On the gloomier side of the existential spectrum, Elon Musk recently donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute to fight the rise of killer robots. Either way, these thinking machines are expected to be a pretty big deal. But we can hardly wait for cosmic horror or transhumanist actualization to start asking the tough questions: Will the robots take our jobs?</span><div> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br></span></div> <div> <script src="http://ads.qadserve.com/t?id=a9d19797-a2f4-4278-bad3-1729dd785474&size=300x250" type="text/javascript"></script> <script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></script> <noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript> <script language="javascript" src="http://banneradvertising.adclickmedia.com/cgi-bin/bannerrotate.cgi?milevski21::46981"></script> <img src="http://blog.captainclock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/employee-time-tracking-robot1.jpg"></div></div>

Will Robots Take Our Jobs?

Today's robots may lack emotions, but they have quite a knack for rousing heated passions within their prevailing meaty overlords. Ray ...

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Restaurants in China roll out robot waiters and kitchen staff

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px; width: 736px;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chinese restaurants are using robot waiters to serve food to patrons. The robots can ferry food to tables, while other animatronic staff help to prepare food in the kitchens – performing straightforward tasks such as squirting cooking oil into pans.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px; width: 736px;"> <img src="http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/335339/robots.jpg"></div> </div>

Restaurants in China roll out robot waiters and kitchen staff

Chinese restaurants are using robot waiters to serve food to patrons. The robots can ferry food to tables, while other animatronic staff h...

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By 2045 The Top Species Will No Longer Be Humans

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404747798946_1396" style="line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Today there's no legislation regarding how much intelligence a machine can have, how interconnected it can be. If that continues, look at the exponential trend. We will reach the singularity in the timeframe most experts predict. From that point on you're going to see that the top species will no longer be humans, but machines."</span></div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1404747798946_1396" style="line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> <img src="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-05-at-4.24.58-PM.png"></div> </div>

By 2045 The Top Species Will No Longer Be Humans

"Today there's no legislation regarding how much intelligence a machine can have, how interconnected it can be. If that continues...

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Can Robots Better Spot Terrorists at Airports?

<div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Next to have their jobs automated: airport-security screeners?</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aviation and government authorities are starting to use machines in lieu of people to verify the identities of fliers by scanning their faces, irises or fingerprints. Dozens of airports in Europe, Australia and the U.S. already employ such technology so passengers can pass immigration checks without showing identification to, or talking with, a person. Now, several major airports in Europe have started using these automated ID checks at security checkpoints and boarding gates.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-CI934_SCREEN_G_20131230193533.jpg" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The use of biometrics—computers verifying identities through physical characteristics—and other automated techniques in airport security is raising questions about the strengths of man versus machine in detecting potential terrorists. Industry officials argue the advantages outweigh the risks, and are promoting automation to help make air travel more efficient and less frustrating—and to save money.</div><!-- BEGIN TAG - DO NOT MODIFY --><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ epom_key = "58a2f5117e08ea757dd860388cddcb60"; epom_channel = ""; epom_code_format = "ads"; epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com"; epom_click = ""; epom_custom_params = {}; epom_width = "300"; epom_height = "250"; epom_sandbox_configuration = "allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation"; document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + "//www.adshost2.com\/js/show_ads.js'><\/script>"); //]]> </script><br /> <!-- END TAG --><br /> <div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ultimately, the technology could "get rid of the boarding pass completely," with fliers' faces serving as their tickets, said Michael Ibbitson, chief information officer of London Gatwick Airport. Gatwick performed a trial this year in which it processed 3,000 <a class="t-company" data-ls-seen="1" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/ES/IAG" style="color: #115b8f; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">British Airways</a>  fliers without boarding passes. The fliers scanned their irises when checking in, enabling cameras at security checkpoints and boarding gates to automatically recognize them. "We're only just starting to see what biometrics can do," he said.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Proponents, including government and industry officials, say that automation of airport security holds the promise to free human screeners so they can focus on detecting suspicious behavior or monitoring flagged travelers. And for some aspects of security, they say, computers can be more thorough and less error-prone than humans.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Critics, however, worry that relying too much on automation will dull the senses of human screeners and remove the human intuition that can detect when something just doesn't seem right.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="424" src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-CI933_SCREEN_D_20131230193450.jpg" width="640" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"If you're sweating profusely, for example, the person checking your ID would notice. But that computer taking an iris scan wouldn't," said aviation-security expert Arnold Barnett, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A key part of airport security is "looking at all kinds of things that can't be captured by an algorithm," he said.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">About 28% of the world's airports now use biometric technology, up from 18% in 2008, according to a survey by SITA, an airline IT provider.</div><!-- BEGIN TAG - DO NOT MODIFY --><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ epom_key = "58a2f5117e08ea757dd860388cddcb60"; epom_channel = ""; epom_code_format = "ads"; epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com"; epom_click = ""; epom_custom_params = {}; epom_width = "300"; epom_height = "250"; epom_sandbox_configuration = "allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation"; document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + "//www.adshost2.com\/js/show_ads.js'><\/script>"); //]]> </script><br /> <!-- END TAG --><br /> <div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The International Air Transport Association and Airports Council International, two of the industry's largest global trade groups, advocate automation as part of their initiative to streamline airport security. The groups say the lengthy and cumbersome security process is deterring some travelers from flying, and note that the average checkpoint now processes about 150 passengers an hour, half the rate before the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Their "Smart Security" program will use new checkpoints at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and London Heathrow Airport next year to test key proposals, likely including new baggage-screening software that automatically clears some simple objects like clothing without running X-ray images past human screeners.</div><div><br /> Read more from the source: </div><div><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304244904579276851803909952">http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304244904579276851803909952</a></div><div class="module rich-media-inset inset-group view imageFormat-D" style="border: 0px; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 19px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 264px; z-index: 2;"><div class="inset-tree" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="inset-content inset-single-image-large" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="insettipUnit insetZoomTarget" style="border: 0px; font-size: 1em; margin: 10px 0px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="inset-image-box insetZoomTargetBox" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="insettipBox" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: -6px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="module rich-media-inset inset-group view imageFormat-D" style="border: 0px; clear: left; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 19px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 264px; z-index: 2;"><br /> </div><!-- BEGIN TAG - DO NOT MODIFY --><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ epom_key = "585a1f37f0a87ff49f68b4ff36bf96f4"; epom_channel = ""; epom_code_format = "ads"; epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com"; epom_click = ""; epom_custom_params = {}; epom_width = "728"; epom_height = "90"; epom_sandbox_configuration = "allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation"; document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') + "//www.adshost2.com\/js/show_ads.js'><\/script>"); //]]> </script><br /> <!-- END TAG -->

Can Robots Better Spot Terrorists at Airports?

Next to have their jobs automated: airport-security screeners? Aviation and government authorities are starting to use machines in lieu of p...

Read more »