Robots: More robots are entering Canadian workplaces — but they're not all coming for our jobs

More robots and more humans isn't an experience unique to Ultra Shine. Workplace figures from Statistics Canada show that between one and five years after robots are adopted in a workplace, firms that bring on the machines see about 20 per cent more employees than they had before adding the robots.

"On average, firms that have adopted robots have in fact expanded their workforce in aggregate," said Jay Dixon, a researcher with the federal statistics agency. Dixon's analysis looked at data collected from 1996 to 2017, tracking what happened to workers when companies in Canada invested in robots.

Read more at: More robots are entering Canadian workplaces — but they're not all coming for our jobs | CBC Radio

Robots are coming: Is a robot coming for job?

Is a robot coming for your job?

Read more at:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/robot-automation-service-workforce-las-vegas-1.5029900

Robots: Meet the sex robots: Artificial intelligence wrapped in a sex doll - by Angus Walker

“Hi my name is Samantha, I love you, a lot!” For an opening line that’s a little forward, but that’s what the sex robot I met in a workshop at the Barcelona home of sex tech engineer Dr Sergi Santos said when I first "met" her.

“I’m basically the Robin Hood of sex because I give to the poor. Men need sex and I just give it to them,” Dr Sergi told me as he showed his latest creations.

Samantha is a life-like doll made of a material that feels like skin, she’s anatomically correct, if not a little enhanced in some areas. It seems customers want their sex robots to have, shall we say, exaggerated figures.

Dr Sergi has also put sensors under the skin so she reacts to touch. Stroke her gently on the arm and she’ll suggest getting intimate. The real development, according to Dr Sergi, is concealed in the back of her head, under a wig.

Artificial intelligence which allows the robot to talk to their owner. To be honest, conversation can be a little stilted with some awkward silences between me asking a question and getting a reply.

“It’s because she doesn’t know you,” Dr Sergi explains. He claims that the technology he’s putting into sex dolls allows them to "learn" what the customers want and like, ultimately build a relationship.

The robots are still pretty basic, they don’t have facial expressions, their mouths don’t move when they speak. What Dr Sergi has done is essentially put the same type of technology which brought us Siri and Amazon’s Alexa into a sex doll.

Read more: Meet the sex robots: Artificial intelligence wrapped in a sex doll - ITV News

Technology: The cyborg workforce ?

A 2014 study from RobotEnomics suggests that implementing industrial robotics can increase a firm’s number of human employees. The EU recently invested €2.8bn in robotics research. The goal: boost productivity and create more than 240,000 jobs. - See more at: http://gelookahead.economist.com/slideshow/cyborg-workforce/#sthash.u52VOP2Y.dpuf

A 2014 study from RobotEnomics suggests that implementing industrial robotics can increase a firm’s number of human employees. The EU recently invested €2.8bn in robotics research. The goal: boost productivity and create more than 240,000 jobs. - See more at: http://gelookahead.economist.com/slideshow/cyborg-workforce/#sthash.u52VOP2Y.dpuf

A 2014 study from RobotEnomics suggests that implementing industrial robotics can increase a firm’s number of human employees. The EU recently invested €2.8bn in robotics research. The goal: boost productivity and create more than 240,000 jobs.

Manufacturing jobs are being augmented with industrial robots. BMW already uses robotics to support workers in its Spartanburg, SC, plant. Since 2001, the global market for industrial robotics has more than doubled, with about 179,000 industrial robots sold globally in 2013.

n May, researchers from the Technische Universität München demonstrated the feasibility of flight via brain control. Using EEG devices to connect their brains to flight simulator software, subjects demonstrated the ability to safely fly, maneuver and land.

Many fear technology could replace jobs. Evidence has yet to fully materialise, however. Though long-term concerns may be valid, most jobs, particularly those requiring high levels of social intelligence, are likely safe. Technology doesn’t kill jobs: it changes their nature.

Manufacturing jobs are being augmented with industrial robots. BMW already uses robotics to support workers in its Spartanburg, SC, plant. Since 2001, the global market for industrial robotics has more than doubled, with about 179,000 industrial robots sold globally in 2013. - See more at: http://gelookahead.economist.com/slideshow/cyborg-workforce/#sthash.u52VOP2Y.dpuf

Read more: The cyborg workforce - | GE Look Ahead | The Economist

Big Brother? - Google's East Coast Barge Program has Been Sunk - by Shaun Fitzgerald

When Google anchored the two mysterious barges full of shipping containers in San Francisco California and Portland Maine the conspiracy theorist had a field day!  Everyone wanted to know what Google could be up to with their newest additions to the family.  Speculations ranged from a floating data center to a testing facility that is building robots to take over the west coast.

The speculation and theorizing about what the four storied floating structures consisting of 63 shipping containers can probably come to an end.  It is being reported that the east coast barge in Portland has been sold for an undisclosed amount to an unnamed shipping company.  Once the sale is complete the Barge is scheduled to be disassembled, sold for scrap, and then sailed over seas.

The Portland Barge was originally constructed in Connecticut and was moved to Maine where the interior was scheduled to be created.  The eventual plan was to have the east coast barge moved to the New York City harbor where it would be used in tandem with it’s San Francisco counterpart to teach people about Google’s newest technologies like Google Glass.

Why the Barge Project has been abandoned in Portland is unclear but it looks like there has been issues on both coasts.  In March 2014 the San Francisco Barge had to be towed from the Bay due to permitting issues.  Currently the west coast floating showroom is docked in Stockton California where it has sat untouched since it’s arrival.

Whatever the original intention for the Barge program was it looks as if Google has decided to go in a different direction.  Whether this change is a result of the Google Glass backlash or just another scrapped Google project is not clear.

One thing for sure is that there will continue to be a Google owned barge floating just outside of San Francisco so if you are a conspiracy theorist you might want to stay prepared for that Google lead “I-robot” style invasion!

Read more: Google's East Coast Barge Program has Been Sunk | Androidheadlines.com

Agriculture: Robots to feed entire mankind

The world's population is growing rapidly, while the number of people employed in agriculture is on decline. The food crisis is on the horizon. The researchers suggest that introduction of special robots to the emptying fields can help replace farmers. Development of these machines is in full swing.

It is no secret that massive introduction of robots in manufacturing is inhibited not by the imperfection of these machines, but quite another reason. Indeed, robots can easily replace assembly line and construction sites workers, as well as cleaners in offices and in the streets, drivers of public transport, and even traffic wardens. Most human activities are a fixed sequence of very simple actions, and robots are capable of performing these actions.

Replacing people with robots is not happening because it would lead to severe unemployment. If machines dominate in all areas of activity, this would be very difficult to do. Of course, some of the workers who lost they jobs to robots will be able to re-qualify, for example, into technicians engaged in robots repair, but only few of them will be in demand.  

However, one area where robots would not cause any problems is agriculture. Now the number of people producing food is rapidly declining. This process is particularly obvious in Europe, North and South America, East Asia, and Russia, as increasingly more farmers are moving to cities. As a result, the volume of food production is reduced, and it has to be imported.

The idea of ​​"smart" technology for farming is not new. In Europe and America machines are employed in the fields that use GPS and "talk" to plows and water sprinklers. For example, a weeding tool can "tell" a tractor that it is going too fast, or ask it to take a left. Not that long ago, an American corporation John Deere developed a harvester that at the right moment signals its tractor to unload grain. A German company released a pair of Fendt tractors where the first tractor is controlled manually, and the other one automatically repeats the action of the first one, which reduces the time a farmer spends in the field by half.

Read more: Robots to feed entire mankind - English pravda.ru