Robots and Gigs

It’s the fab @sarahoconnor_ kicking off #economicsfest on robots and jobs, with @RSAMatthew @KimberleyScharf @TahaYasseri Debra Howcroft

#economicsfest @RSAMatthew says robots, AI and globalisation must be politicised.

The key point from @RSAMatthew is urgent need to politicise the discussion about technology - the technical is political #economicsfest

Resist technological determinism. #economicsfest

Any prediction about tech & jobs is a reactionary act, says @RSAMatthew - it’s tech determinism #economicsfest

.@RSAMatthew draws parallels between "inevitability" of financial globalisation pre-2008 and current "inevitable" development of tech. #economicsfest

I know believe that people making predictions about how technology will shape jobs are walking into a trap - @RSAMatthew looking back at music, retail and more #economicsfest

@RSAMatthew saying we need to politize technology and quickly so we understand the consequences of it. @FestivalofIdeas

#Blackpool embodies much of what is going wrong on the fringes of Britain, @sarahoconnor_ @FT #economicsfest  https://www.ft.com/content/b6dbf34e-c987-11e7-aa33-c63fdc9b8c6c …

.@RSAMatthew cautions is against predictions about the Labour market. It was predicted the music industry would be dead by now. #economicsfest

Mustafa Suliman lecture at RSA website must be seen. Understands the issues. #economicsfest

Watch this lecture by @mustafasuleymn , advises @RSAMatthew  https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/rsa-presidents-lecture-the-technologists-dilemma … #economicsfest

Matthew Taylor writes on the implications of DeepMind:  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2017/11/deep-mind--deep-reform … #economicsfest

The technologist's dilemma, @mustafasuleymn lecture @theRSAorg, @RSAMatthew #economicsfest  https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/11/rsa-presidents-lecture-the-technologists-dilemma …

Fifteen years ago we were told the music industry was dead - it wasn’t so don’t believe forecasts about robots and jobs says @RSAMatthew #economicsfest

Delighted to have Sarah O'Connor ( @sarahoconnor_ ) here as chair of first #economicsfest session, author of this brilliant article on Blackpool:  https://www.ft.com/content/b6dbf34e-c987-11e7-aa33-c63fdc9b8c6c …

Debra Howcroft says future not pre-determined, inequality not inevitable; tech cd improve equality  https://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/centres-and-institutes/work-and-equalities-institute/ … #economicsfest

Debra Howcroft: technological change might affect genders differently, not necessarily helping equality. #economicsfest

Review of modern working practices - report by @RSAMatthew, #economicsfest debate on robots & gigs  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2017/07/the-taylor-review …

Howcroft: robots in the workplace have implications for the home, and for expectations about housework & other unpaid work. #economicsfest

"It's never been more opportune for state interventions to shape technical outcomes" - Debra Howcroft #economicsfest

Employers in gig economy turn on & off demand for labour at will, will automate to replace workers, says @KimberleyScharf #economicsfest

Lawyers and accountants will be the new gig economy workers, says @KimberleyScharf #economicsfest

.@KimberleyScharf argues that if automation lets firms replace their low-skilled workers, they won't need so many high-skilled workers either #economicsfest

And @KimberleyScharf wins the prize for being the first person today to mention the blockchain #economicsfest

.@KimberleyScharf : gig economy brings flexibility but uncertainty. The jobs are fragile and targets for automation. #economicsfest

Sharf: people imagine robot workers as the size of a person or a car, but swarm technology involves tiny robots that co-ordinate in different shapes. #economicsfest

#Slaughterbots - warning about danger of autonomous killer robots, #economicsfest @KimberleyScharf  https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kqmy5/slaughterbots-autonomous-weapons-future-of-life …

As his parents were economists, he had every reason not to study economics, says @TahaYasseri. Hah! #economicsfest

Job automation is already happening where employers don't expect it to - what do you do with someone who gets the work done in a minute fraction of the time? #economicsfest  https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/93696/is-it-unethical-for-me-to-not-tell-my-employer-i-ve-automated-my-job …

.@TahaYasseri : we have automation to thank for fact that we are not all now working in the fields or the factories. #economicsfest

The geography of the disappearing and the new jobs is important; bigger cities will gain, says @TahaYasseri #economicsfest

It’s much harder to replace jobs requiring social interaction. We need to pay attention to the timescales, says @TahaYasseri #economicsfest

Yasseri asks who in the room uses @Wikipedia. Almost everyone. Who edits it? Not many, but a large proportion of the young people. #economicsfest

Never mind killer robots – even the good ones are scarily unpredictable, @TahaYasseri #economicsfest  https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/never-mind-killer-robots-even-the-good-ones-are-scarily-unpredictable/ …

Humans have advantages. The bots editing Wikipedia fight far more than the human editors do, @TahaYasseri points out. #economicsfest

Yasseri: a lot of the most prolific Wikipedia contributors are bots. Bot conflicts endure: they lack human conflict resolution. #economicsfest

.@TahaYasseri brings up Wikipedia as a space where humans are better at empathy than bots (though that doesn't always hold for capitalising film titles...) #economicsfest  https://www.dailydot.com/society/wikipedia-star-trek-into-darkness-capitalization/ …

The warehouses have created human robots, says @sarahoconnor_ - quality of work matters as well as quantity #economicsfest

We need a national minimum quality of work as well as a national minimum wage, urges @RSAMatthew Old social contract is bust #economicsfest

Our knowledge of how automated agents interact is poor, @TahaYasseri on editing bots @Wikipedia, #economicsfest  https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/our-knowledge-of-how-automated-agents-interact-is-rather-poor-and-that-could-be-a-problem/ …

#economicsfest minimum quality of work needed as well as national minimum wage (now totally accepted), says @RSAMatthew

O'Connor warns thst technology is enabling "human robots": factory jobs in which employees are micro-controlled. #economicsfest

Taylor: people often don't bring their whole selves to work (for good reason). This may be part of why productivity is so low. #economicsfest

#economicsfest Good work? We shd be able to take our whole selves to work.

Job quality an old issue now affecting ‘good’ jobs. People didn’t care much about blue collar workers, says Debra Howcroft #economicsfest

Howcroft: growth in workforce with degrees hasn't led to growth in good jobs, but to more of workforce having pressure of large debt. #economicsfest

Of course people should want to go to work but the bigger issue is the income inequality, according to @KimberleyScharf #economicsfest

.@KimberleyScharf also points out generational inequality - highly educated young people worse off than previous cohorts #economicsfest

Scharf: the 1% of the population who own 50% of the wealth are very protective: make sure their families stay in that elite. #economicsfest

There has to be shift from degree based to skill based education; current system unprepared for changes, @TahaYasseri says #economicsfest

Yasseri: nature of work changing so rapidly we need skills-based education in a matter of weeks. Multi-year degrees not always the solution. #economicsfest

Technological dislocation makes things worse for ages - look at the neolithic revolution, says @RSAMatthew #economicsfest

@FestivalofIdeas discussing humans who have 'social' jobs will succeed better than ppl who have 'highly skilled' jobs such as accountants.

Blockchain will disrupt the rich as they won't own the market. #economicsfest

Nice shout out to @WalterScheidel ‘The Great Leveler’ by @RSAMatthew #economicsfest - Black Death great for equality!

The Black Death was great for equality, @RSAMatthew says. @sarahoconnor_ decides it’s about time to bring in the audience #economicsfest

Universal Basic Income is a recurring topic of #economicsfest: lots of interest from the audience

The case for universal basic income, @RSAMatthew #economicsfest  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2015/12/the-basic-case-for-basic-income …

.@RSAMatthew makes the fantastic distinction between the pie-in-the-sky "end of work/right to be lazy" UBI the kind that helps improve working conditions #economicsfest

Taylor sees UBI as a modern approach to welfare, helping people have fulfilling working lives, not as alternative to work. #economicsfest

.@KimberleyScharf brings up the dual challenges of Pareto efficiency (making someone better off without making anyone worse off) and fairness. Worth comparing @EricBeinhocker's point of how people see fairness of outcome vs fairness of process/opportunity #economicsfest

Scharf: decisions about welfare involve trade off of fairness & efficiency. No single best answer: we need to decide democratically what we value. #economicsfest

Question about designing the tech we want rather than taking it as given. Who’s commissioning the tech & for what purpose? #economicsfest

Personality traits may become more important than class for people’s prospects, might be a good thing, says @TahaYasseri #economicsfest

Scharf: automation raises the value of social skills more than cognitive skills. Robots can do ever more brainy things but not empathetic things. #economicsfest

Debra Howcroft argues tech is in fact neutral; platform for drivers doesn’t need to be like Uber. Control determines outcomes #economicsfest

"Technology is neutral but it's the way it's applied that causes the inequality." #economicsfest @FestivalofIdeas

#economicsfest @KimberleyScharf: non- cognitive viz social skills will get you to the top but then you need brains ...!

Why are we letting big high tech companies build our future, asks Debra Howcroft. #economicsfest

Howcroft: technology does not dictate Uber's business model. Transport could be very different. These are business decisions taken without democratic input. #economicsfest

The Black Mirror episode "Hated In The Nation" seems like essential background viewing for current #economicsfest discussion of swarm tech.

Only significant declines in #inequality since 1300 resulted from Black Death & World Wars, @voxeu #economicsfest  http://voxeu.org/article/europe-s-rich-1300 …

Open Badges get a mention as a way to evidence important "soft" skills beyond what is captured in a normal CV. #economicsfest

#economicsfest Soft, life skills often missed in recruitment, yet essential in many occupations. Need to be better understood.

Keep in mind there's a big difference between the National Living Wage and the @LivingWageUK campaign! #economicsfest

.@RSAMatthew points out that the big issue in the US isn't the top 1%, it's the top 20% Same 20/80 split popped up in @JeanTirole's comment last night on French educational inequality #economicsfest

The government should set up metrics for the quality of work - @RSAMatthew #economicsfest

The near-monopoly status of the tech giants is another recurring theme of #economicsfest. Are we prepared for risks of centralisation?

The political demand to gig platforms should be for workers to have control of their own ratings etc, says @RSAMatthew #economicsfest

Debra Howcroft disagrees - people’s ratings are affected by the behaviour of the platform, she says #Economicsfest

Questioner says #economicsfest discussion is far too narrow - ignores what’s happening if jobs in Asia get automated

@FestivalofIdeas #economicsfest. Robots and Gigs. Matthew mentioned how it should be Politicised, it should be and regulated. Who do trust.?

Deep mind, deep reform - @RSAMatthew on 4 ways of coordinating human activity, #economicsfest  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2017/11/deep-mind--deep-reform …

Taylor: we need to stand up to the Silicon Valley giants, but a post-Brexit UK will be desperate for trade; in no position to make demands. #economicsfest

“Can’t imagine an enfeebled Britain standing up to Google” @RSAMatthew #economicsfest

End of fascinating session on challenges of technology @RSAMatthew 'action leads to hope not hope to action #economicsfest

The science of Wikipedia flamewars, @Wonkblog on @TahaYasseri study, #economicsfest  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/07/23/the-science-of-wikipedia-flamewars/?utm_term=.3c90525096c4 …

@economics_net @KimberleyScharf Unfortunately, the cost of labour in the gig economy means that it is (currently) much less costly to employ humans that robots. That will change, but types of jobs will also need to change! #economicsfest

Great talk this morning on Robots and the gig economy at @FestivalofIdeas #economicsfest

@TahaYasseri @Sarahoconnor @RSAMatthew @FestivalofIdeas @DianeCoyle1859 @econromesh Here’s a link to the Swedish study (cognitive/non-cognitive issue).  http://ftp.iza.org/dp10914.pdf 

A fuller explication of some of the themes I spoke about at the @FestivalofIdeas yesterday Deep Mind – deep reform - RSA  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2017/11/deep-mind--deep-reform …