TECHNOLOGY

AI more likely to affect men

THE AI (artificial intelligence) revolution could affect work in nearly every occupation, but certain demographics could be impacted more, research from the Brookings Institution suggests.
Men, over-represented in both analytical, technical and professional roles as well as production, work in occupations with much higher AI exposure.
Earlier waves of automation may have already taken the most repetitive jobs from the hands of factory workers, but the AI revolution is likely to most affect better-educated and better-paid white-collar workers, many of them men, according to a study released last Wednesday.

Brookings Institution researchers overlaid keywords in AI-related patents with job descriptions listed in the US government’s official occupational database to measure each job’s varying levels of “exposure” to AI applications in the near future.
The findings showed that AI could affect work in virtually every occupational group. A previous analysis by Stanford University PhD candidate Michael Webb, who developed the technique used in the Brookings researchers’ study, found that 740 out of 769 occupational descriptions analysed contained one or more of tasks that could potentially be exposed to, complemented by or completed by AI.
While research on automation’s robotics and software continues to show that less-educated, lower-wage workers may be most vulnerable to displacement, the Washington-based institute’s latest analysis showed that AI will be a significant factor in the future work lives of relatively well-paid managers, supervisors and analysts.
Bachelor’s degree holders were the most exposed to AI by education level, more than five times as much as workers with just a high school degree, while those with graduate or professional degrees were four times more exposed than high school degree holders.
“Unlike robotics (associated with the factory floor) and computers (associated with routine office activities), AI has a distinctly white-collar bent,” the researchers said in the report.
“While earlier waves of automation have led to disruption across the lower half of the wage distribution, AI appears likely to have different impacts, with its own windfalls and challenges.
White-collar, well-paid America – radiologists, legal professionals, optometrists, and many more – will likely get no free pass on this flavour of digital disruption.”
Skilled factory workers, who are increasingly well-educated in many occupations as well as heavily involved with AI on the shop floor, were also among the groups found to be more exposed to the influence of AI. This may be much less of a factor in the work of lower-paid service workers such as dental assistants and cooks, the researchers said.
Men, over-represented in both analytical, technical and professional roles as well as production, were found to work in occupations with much higher AI exposure scores.
Meanwhile, the report said that women’s heavy involvement in “interpersonal” occupations in education, health care support and personal care services appeared to shelter them from the impact of AI development.
Notably, the analysis predicted areas of work in which some kind of impact is expected but not specifically whether AI will substitute existing work, complement it or create entirely new work for humans.
– South China Morning Post

Robotics could replace 40pc workers

UP to 40 per cent of China’s manufacturing workforce could be “potentially affected” by the use of robots.
The rise of automation had a disproportionate impact on workers with lower levels of education
By 2025, machinery and robotics are set to replace nearly 5 per cent of China’s workforce, leading to the disappearance of certain jobs and more pressure on the job market, according to an industry report released this week.
In a survey of nearly 2,000 companies in China, the Wuhan University Institute of Quality Development Strategy found that the proportion of workers employed in companies that made use of robotics rose from 12 per cent in 2008 to 37 per cent in 2017.

Of the companies surveyed, 13.4 per cent used robots as part of their processes in 2017, up from 8.1 per cent two years before.
As a result, about 40 per cent of China’s manufacturing workforce could be “potentially affected” by the use of robots, putting further strain on the job market on the world’s most populous country, according to the report.
Between 2015 and 2017, the average annual growth rate of investments in robotics was as high as 57 per cent. The rise of automation had a disproportionate impact on workers with lower levels of education – during this period, robotics replaced 9.4 per cent of employees with a junior high school degree or below, while demand for college degree workers conversely grew 3.6 per cent.
China has become a world leader in automation in recent years, becoming the largest buyer of industrial robots in 2013. The country’s “Made in China 2025” national campaign, announced in 2017, also put smart manufacturing as a high priority.
The country aims to make it into the world’s top 10 most intensively automated nations by 2020, with a target of
150 robot units per 10,000 employees.
According to an IDC report, the country’s annual spending on robotics is likely to exceed US$59 billion by next year.
Last year, about 154,000 industrial robot units were installed in China – 36 per cent of all units installed globally and more than the total number installed in Europe and the Americas – according to the International Federation of Robotics. In comparison, 40,300 industrial robot units were installed in the US the same year.
But along with potential economic benefits, the rise of automation has also brought uncertainty to the future of about 100 million workers employed in the manufacturing industry.
A separate survey by government think-tank China Development Research Foundation and venture capital fund Sequoia China last year showed that some companies in China’s export-manufacturing provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong had cut 30 to 40 per cent of their labour force between 2015 and 2017 due to automation.
Still, in spite of the ongoing US-China trade war and the increasing automation of processes previously carried out by human workers, the Wuhan institute expects China’s overall employment rate to grow 1.6 per cent in 2020. – South China Morning Post

Russia ‘successfully tests’ its unplugged internet

RUSSIA has successfully tested a country-wide alternative to the global internet, its government has announced.
Details of what the test involved were vague but according to the Ministry of Communications, ordinary users did not notice any changes. The results will now be presented to President Putin.
Experts remain concerned about the trend for some countries to dismantle the internet.
“Sadly, the Russian direction of travel is just another step in the increasing breaking-up of the internet,” said Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey.
“Increasingly, authoritarian countries which want to control what citizens see are looking at what Iran and China have already done.
“It means people will not have access to dialogue about what is going on in their own country, they will be kept within their own bubble.”
How would a domestic internet work?
The initiative involves restricting the points at which Russia’s version of the net connects to its global counterpart, giving the government more control over what its citizens can access.
“That would effectively get ISPs (internet service providers) and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does,” explained Prof Woodward.
So how would the government establish what some have dubbed a “sovereign Runet”?
Countries receive foreign web services via undersea cables or “nodes” – connection points at which data is transmitted to and from other countries’ communication networks. These would need to be blocked or at least regulated. – BBC