There's an Automation Crisis Underway Right Now, It's Just Mostly Invisible

Source: Brian Merchant
Affiliation: Gizmodo

This article describes the results of a research study on workplace automation’s impact on the individual worker. While the study found that automation does not cause a “robot apocalypse”—i.e. automation does not cause mass layoffs—it does contribute to a long-term loss of wages for employees. The means that automation causes a more subtle, but still impactful, harm than the apocalyptic-style harm most people anticipate it to cause. The author argues that this slow, subtle harm makes it harder to rally for policy changes to help fix the issue compared to if the harm was more dramatic and immediately visible.

Keywords: Automation , Computer Science , Tech Ethics , Tech Industry