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Automation Will Crash Democracy

Automation Will Crash Democracy
The BriefGet Up To Speed

Around the world, technology is disrupting the workforce, with automation poised to displace humans in the fields of medicine, agriculture, and beyond. Will the rise of robots fuel a new wave of “us versus them” populism capable of undermining democracy?

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Background
Robotics, Smart Materials, and their Future Impact for Humans

“The boundaries between smart materials, artificial intelligence, embodiment, biology, and robotics are blurring. This is how robotics will really affect the human race over the next twenty to forty years.”

Thursday, April 6, 2017
MIT Technology Review
Jonathan Rossiter
12 jobs robots are already taking over

Here are 12 jobs with the highest degrees of automation, as well as what they pay and how much the job will grow or decline by the year 2024 … according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Thursday, September 14, 2017
Business Insider
Rachel Gillett and Anaele Pelisson
Seven Jobs Robots Will Create—or Expand

“AI opens up opportunities for many new jobs to be created—some that we can imagine and many we probably can’t right now.”

Sunday, April 29, 2018
Wall Street Journal
Daniela Hernandez
6 key findings on how Americans see the rise of automation

“A Pew Research Center survey conducted in May examines Americans’ attitudes about four emerging automation technologies: workplace automation, driverless cars, robot caregivers, and computer algorithms that evaluate and hire job applicants.”

Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Pew Research Center
Monica Anderson
Americans Love Automation Until It Comes for Their Jobs

An overview of studies that polled how Americans feel about automation.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Wired
Klint Finley
Low-skill workers aren’t actually the ones most threatened by robots

“Thanks primarily to automation, and to a lesser extent globalization, no rich country’s middle-skilled workers are safe.”

Monday, June 26, 2017
Quartz
Dan Kopf
Jobs gap closes but recovery remains uneven

“People on low and middle incomes have seen their wages stagnate and the share of middle-skilled jobs has fallen, contributing to rising inequality and concerns that top earners are getting a disproportionate share of the gains from economic growth, according to a new OECD report.”

Tuesday, June 13, 2017
So, What’s the Real Difference Between AI and Automation?

“Automation is software that follows pre-programmed ‘rules’. Artificial intelligence is designed to simulate human thinking.”

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Medium
Dave Evans
For the Motion
How Robots Will Break Politics

“As new technologies transform the economy, wages fall, and displaced workers compete with those already employed for available jobs. We can see this effect around us now.”

Thursday, February 1, 2018
Politico Magazine
Ryan Avent
Is the Populist Revolt Over? Not if Robots Have Their Way

“Another wave of disruption is about to wash across the world economy, knocking out entire new classes of jobs: artificial intelligence. This could provide decades’ worth of fuel to the revolt against the global elites.”

Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Eduardo Porter
Robots will not lead to fewer jobs – but the hollowing out of the middle class

“Perhaps the weak wage growth of recent years is telling us something, namely that technology is hollowing out the middle class and creating a bifurcated economy in which a small number of very rich people employ armies of poor people to cater for their every whim.”

Sunday, August 20, 2017
The Guardian
Larry Elliott
Automation will drive interest rates higher, a new report concludes

“As companies scramble to borrow money in order to buy machinery and robots, the resulting investment boom will drive up rates.”

Saturday, March 3, 2018
Economist
What’s Next for Humanity: Automation, New Morality and a ‘Global Useless Class’

“Disruptive technologies, which have helped bring enormous progress, could be disastrous if they get out of hand.”

Monday, March 19, 2018
New York Times
Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
Why Universal Basic Income and tax breaks won’t save us from the jobless future

“UBI will not solve the social problems that come from loss of people’s purpose in life and of their social stature and identity — which jobs provide.”

Friday, June 9, 2017
The Washington Post
Vivek Wadhwa
How Automation Could Worsen Racial Inequality

“Self-driving buses would knock out crucial jobs in black communities across the country.”

Tuesday, January 16, 2018
The Atlantic
Alexis C. Madriga
Against the Motion
Robopocalypse Not

“Everyone thinks that automation will take away our jobs. The evidence disagrees.”

Friday, September 1, 2017
Wired
James Surowiecki
Automation replaced 800,000 workers… then created 3.5 million new jobs

“Technology is changing the way we work — that’s not in dispute. These changes can improve people’s lives and lead to a more creative, intellectually engaged workforce.”

Thursday, September 7, 2017
Venture Beat
Alston Ghafourifar
Are Robots Going to Steal Our Jobs?

“The conventional wisdom among technologists is well-established: Robots are going to eat our jobs. But economists tend to have a different perspective.”

Saturday, July 1, 2017
Reason
Ronald Bailer
Robots Will Help Us Embrace Humanity, Not Lose It

“There’s an argument to say that rather than engineering humans out of the equation, artificial intelligence will enable us to reach our full potential—performing better.”

Friday, February 16, 2018
Newsweek
Simon Rogerson
Robots won't kill the workforce. They'll save the global economy.

“Across the world, the labor pool isn't growing fast enough to support our needs.”

Friday, December 2, 2016
The Washington Post
Ruchir Sharma
Automated Inequality

“If vast swathes of the human population are rendered effectively unemployable, it is imperative that a mechanism is in place to ensure that everyone will stand to benefit from automation—many believe that a universal basic income might be the answer.”

Sunday, October 16, 2016
Harvard Political Review
The Rise of Populism
The populist challenge to liberal democracy

“There is … an internal challenge to liberal democracy—a challenge from populists who seek to drive a wedge between democracy and liberalism.”

Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Brookings Institution
William A. Galston
The Misunderstood Nature of Populism

“It’s not a threat to democracy but a salve.”

Saturday, October 14, 2017
National Review
John O’Sullivan
The State of Democracy
Freedom in the World 2018: Democracy in Crisis

Freedom House found that last year, “seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains. This marked the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.”

Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Freedom House
Is democracy actually in retreat? There’s some evidence to the contrary

“What if democracy is actually doing fine and it is something else that needs correcting?”

Wednesday, April 4, 2018
AEI
Clay R. Fuller
Democracy continues its disturbing retreat

“More than half the countries in the latest update of a democratic-health index saw their scores decline.”

Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Economist