Monitoring
AI and hyper-automation
In a recent
study, economists Daren Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of
Boston University try to quantify how worried we should be about
robots. They examine the impact of industrial automation on the US
labor market from 1990 to 2007. They conclude that each additional
robot reduced employment in a given commuting area by 3-6 workers,
and lowered overall wages by 0.25-0.5%.
A central
question about robots is whether they replace human workers or
augment them by boosting productivity. Acemoglu and Restrepo’s
research is a powerful piece of evidence on the side of replacement.
So, brace yourself: According to the International Federation of
Robotics, there are already between 1.5-1.75 million industrial
robots in operation, and some observers expect that number to more
than double by 2025.
[...]
Industrial
robots are most commonly used in the automotive industry, which
accounts for 39% of robot usage in the US. It’s no surprise, then,
that workers in America’s Midwestern carmaking capitals have been
the most affected by automation.
[...]
Assessing
the impact of robots on jobs is no simple task. Advances in other
kinds of technology, the spread of the internet, and increased trade
with China and Mexico also led to changes in the US labor market over
the period studied by the economists.
In order to
isolate the effect of robots, Acemoglu and Restrepo used a clever
statistical trick. They collected data on adoption rates of
industrial robots in Europe, and then analyzed what happened to
American labor markets by comparing industry trends with their
equivalents in Europe. This isolated the changes likely caused by the
spread of robots, and not some other factor peculiar to the US.
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