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Text and True - False

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15 views5 pages

Text and True - False

Uploaded by

Maiko Sulava
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Text 1

Today the speed of change is so very fast. In the past changes in technology
happened slowly over thousands of years, like farming, or hundreds of years, like
industry. Today big changes happen in a few years and it is difficult to predict them.
And with progress in automation, we need to think about robots in industry and
driverless cars but also about the many ways computers and digital technology are
changing our work and our lives. We are now at the beginning of a new age of very
big and maybe very difficult changes.
Now we see sudden solutions to old problems. Researchers spent years trying to

get computers to identify object but then machine-learning solved the problem.

Computers use algorithms to learn from examples, data, and experience. Google’s

technology to recognise pictures is now better than humans.


We thought that automation could not do the job of a dentist. But in September 2017
in China, a robot dentist pu in two teeth without help from a human dentist. The teeth
were 3D printed.
Of course, Silicon Valley believes in big changes. Completely changing industries
means making big money for one company. Mark Zuckerberg says for Facebook,
‘Move fast and break things.’ This is now true for capitalists makin money from
technology.
Some people are worried about this. In October 2016 Klaus Schwab from the World

Economic Forum was unhappy and said, ‘Society is facing the “new unknown”.'

Fewer jobs?

Most of the problems of automation are in work and jobs.

Citi and Oxford Martin School says 80 per cent of retail jobs are at risk. It’s not just

machines replacing the people

at the tills in shops but more internet shopping and automation in warehouses and

transport.

Robots have done the work of a dentist and replaced teeth.


True/false?

Artificial Intelligence is better than doctors at finding health


problems. True/false?

A report suggests that there was a likelihood that


American workers who used technology voted for
Trump. True/false?
Technology will make us more equal. True/false?
Text 2
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce (RSA) says that in Britain, w may lose jobs in finance and
accounting, transport and distribution, and media marketing and advertising.
Another report says we may lose one in three British jobs.
And for the Majority World things are no better. A study using World Bank data
says we may lose 77 per cent of jobs in China, 69 per cent in India, and 85 per
cent in Uzbekistan. These ideas about the future are because there may be no
more low-wage labour in the Global South with automation making
manufacture cheaper in the West. And more automation in poorer countries
may replace more jobs than in the West.
Others disagree and say with new technology there will be different kinds of
jobs, or life will be better and work will matter less. But in the US, only 0.5 per
cent of workers have found new and different jobs.
There is also the idea that it is better to have automation in jobs that are

boring, repetitive, dirty or dangerous.


But there are very good technological advances. Artificial intelligence can now
find cancers better than doctors and is better than doctors in diagnosing
symptoms. Robots can do surgery with steady hands. This is good news of
course for patients but not so good for the doctors.
It is likely and maybe possible for computer programs to study case law better
and faster and suggest lines o defence in court. But do we want them to be
the only possibility? Algorithms can find illegal financial transactions in a
millisecond. But they can also do fast buying and selling on the stock market.
At the same time they can compete with other computers. It’s very good that
drones can deliver medicines to remote rural areas in Malawi. But there is a
problem if the areas stay remote and that is the only health care they have

One report say about a third of jobs in Britain are at

risk. True/false?

World Bank data predicts greater


jobs losses in India than in China.
True/false?

The Global South may lose more jobs than in the West.
True/false?

In the USA a lot of workers have


found new jobs when
technology replaced theirs.
True/false?

Artificial Intelligence is better than


doctors at finding health problems.
True/false?

Drones are the solution to all health problems in


Malawi. True/false?
Text 3

We always need to think about the effects on humans. And we are not doing that

enough.

A new report showed that US workers who used automation at work were more likely to

vote for
Donald Trump. It is possible they were thinking about Trump’s plan to bring
manufacturing back to the US again. But in 2016, the US produced more goods than
ever (85 per cent more than in 1987). And with one important difference: it did this with
30 per cent fewer workers. Manufacturing was already back in the US but more and
more machines did the work. Maybe Trump blamed globalization for losing jobs but
today many people say that automation is a bigger problem.
Orange growers in California are, worried about not finding enough cheap migrant
workers. They are investing in an orange=-picking robot. And in Britain with Brexit,
farmers are thinking about automated strawberry-pickers costing $250,000 each.
Bad for workers
Many predictions about work make a few unhappy points. More and more we will divide
jobs into low- paid/low-skilled and high-paid/high-skilled, with only a few people doing the
high-paid/high-skilled jobs. Workers will have less power and wages will go down.
Algorithms in management will lead to more robotic working conditions for humans; and
maybe many people will do work that is just between machines.
Willem Schinkel is a Dutch sociologist. He says, ‘If we think that work will disappear, that
is a very good way to make us work more cheaply. This means we will be at work 24
hours a day. Then we will want to have our boring 9-to-5 jobs back

report suggests that there was a small likelihood


that American workers who used technology voted
for Trump. True/false?

Last year the USA manufactured less than before. True/false?

Last year the USA manufactured more then before


and with about a third fewer workers. True/false?

Robots will be able to pick oranges and strawberries. True/false?

Workers will suffer because of automation. True/false?


Text 4
Another idea is that more and more jobs will not be necessary. So we must learn new
skills again and again to have a job. And perhaps most of us do not want to do this or
cannot do this. So we must fit
our skills to the needs of the intelligent machines and those who control them!
Another prediction is that inequality will increase with technology. This would be very
bad for the Global South. At the beginning of 2017 Oxfam said that just eight rich men
now control as much wealth as the world’s poorest 50 per cent.
Social critic Curtis White said,, ‘Robots are very good at supply but they don’t create
demand.’ Techno-capitalism would make most of us economically worthless for our
labour, and there would be a few very rich people controlling us..
We can see this power grab in the world of Big Data. Many people complain that all our
digital activities, and the way the internet watches us, are making a rich bank of data,
And only a few mainly US companies are using this data. They can use this data to
influence our political behaviour, what we buy, and many other parts of our lives. Critics
say that governments are giving public statistics to the big data companies and they are
doing it without thinking. But at digital trade talks the rich countries make sure that they
stop any kind of regulation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In September 2017, Vladimir Putin said, ‘Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for
Russia, but for the world… The leader in AI will be the leader of the world.’ Putin was
talking about the AI we will have in the future - gener artificial intelligence (AGI). AGI
could possibly do what humans do and do it better – in financial markets, in research, in
controlling human leaders, and making weapons we cannot understand.

We may need to adapt our skills to the needs of robots.


True/false?

Oxfam says there are 8 rich people who are as wealthy as all of the

world’s poorest 50%. True/false?

Technology will make us more equal. True/false?

The data from our internet use can be used to affect who we vote

for. True/false?

The richest nations want rules to stop the misuse of data,


True/false?
According to the President of Russia,Russia is leading the world in
technology. True/false?

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