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Jobs & economy
What AI is doing to work: displacement studies, productivity research, labor disputes and workforce policy, updated daily.
Socio-technical imaginary of the fourth industrial revolution and its implications for vocational education and training: a literature review
This literature review engages with a diverse and sometimes contradictory body of work, employing an analytic stance rooted in policy scholarship. It discusses rhetorical constructions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR), locating these in understandings of the economy rooted in a neo-liberalism which rests upon a capitalist terrain. The 4th IR is an ideological construct which reflects specific material interests and has particular implications for education and training. The 4th IR’s
Machine Learning Based Toxicity Prediction: From Chemical Structural Description to Transcriptome Analysis
Toxicity prediction is very important to public health. Among its many applications, toxicity prediction is essential to reduce the cost and labor of a drug's preclinical and clinical trials, because a lot of drug evaluations (cellular, animal, and clinical) can be spared due to the predicted toxicity. In the era of Big Data and artificial intelligence, toxicity prediction can benefit from machine learning, which has been widely used in many fields such as natural language processing, speech rec
Making progress with the automation of systematic reviews: principles of the International Collaboration for the Automation of Systematic Reviews (ICASR)
Systematic reviews (SR) are vital to health care, but have become complicated and time-consuming, due to the rapid expansion of evidence to be synthesised. Fortunately, many tasks of systematic reviews have the potential to be automated or may be assisted by automation. Recent advances in natural language processing, text mining and machine learning have produced new algorithms that can accurately mimic human endeavour in systematic review activity, faster and more cheaply. Automation tools need
Barriers to the Circular Economy: Evidence From the European Union (EU)
A Qualitative Exploration of Perceptions of Algorithmic Fairness
Algorithmic systems increasingly shape information people are exposed to as well as influence decisions about employment, finances, and other opportunities. In some cases, algorithmic systems may be more or less favorable to certain groups or individuals, sparking substantial discussion of algorithmic fairness in public policy circles, academia, and the press. We broaden this discussion by exploring how members of potentially affected communities feel about algorithmic fairness. We conducted wor
Birth of Industry 5.0: Making Sense of Big Data with Artificial Intelligence, “The Internet of Things” and Next-Generation Technology Policy
Driverless cars with artificial intelligence (AI) and automated supermarkets run by collaborative robots (cobots) working without human supervision have sparked off new debates: what will be the impacts of extreme automation, turbocharged by the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and the Industry 4.0, on Big Data and omics implementation science? The IoT builds on (1) broadband wireless internet connectivity, (2) miniaturized sensors embedded in animate and inanimate objects ranging from the house ca
Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture
Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from simple covered rows of open-fields crops to highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities that projected the image of plant factories for urban agriculture. The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted the scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings. Successful deployment of CEA for urban agriculture requires many components and subsystems, as well as the underst
Higher Education in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
This collection examines how higher education responds to the demands of the automation economy and the fourth industrial revolution.
How do Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, and Blockchains Affect the Human Factor in Business Process Management?
This paper summarizes a panel discussion at the 15th International Conference on Business Process Management. The panel discussed to what extent the emergence of recent technologies including machine learning, robotic process automation, and blockchain will reduce the human factor in business process management. The panel discussion took place on 14 September, 2017, at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Jan Mendling served as a chair; Gero Decker, Richard Hull, Hajo Re
Consumer Choice and Autonomy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence and data analytics are facilitating the automation of some consumer chores (e.g., in smart homes and in self-driving cars) and allow the emergence of big-data-driven, micro-targeting marketing practices (e.g., personalized content recommendation algorithms). We contend that those developments can generate a tension for marketers, consumers, and policy makers: They can, on the one hand, contribute to consumer well-being by making consume
Job Insecurity and the Changing Workplace: Recent Developments and the Future Trends in Job Insecurity Research
This article updates our understanding of the field of job insecurity (JI) by incorporating studies across the globe since 2003, analyzes what we know, and offers ideas on how to move forward. We begin by reviewing the conceptualization and operationalization of job insecurity. We then review empirical studies of the antecedents, consequences, and moderators of JI effects, as well as the various theoretical perspectives used to explain the relationship of JI to various outcomes. Our analyses als
The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry
Online technologies enable vast amounts of data to outlive their producers online, thereby giving rise to a new, digital form of afterlife presence. Although researchers have begun investigating the nature of such presence, academic literature has until now failed to acknowledge the role of commercial interests in shaping it. The goal of this paper is to analyse what those interests are and what ethical consequences they may have. This goal is pursued in three steps. First, we introduce the conc
Data cultures of mobile dating and hook-up apps: Emerging issues for critical social science research
The ethical and social implications of data mining, algorithmic curation and automation in the context of social media have been of heightened concern for a range of researchers with interests in digital media in recent years, with particular concerns about privacy arising in the context of mobile and locative media. Despite their wide adoption and economic importance, mobile dating apps have received little scholarly attention from this perspective – but they are intense sites of data generatio
Data Science
The 21st century has ushered in the age of big data and data economy, in which data DNA , which carries important knowledge, insights, and potential, has become an intrinsic constituent of all data-based organisms. An appropriate understanding of data DNA and its organisms relies on the new field of data science and its keystone, analytics . Although it is widely debated whether big data is only hype and buzz, and data science is still in a very early phase, significant challenges and opportunit
Improving EEG-Based Emotion Classification Using Conditional Transfer Learning
To overcome the individual differences, an accurate electroencephalogram (EEG)-based emotion-classification system requires a considerable amount of ecological calibration data for each individual, which is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Transfer learning (TL) has drawn increasing attention in the field of EEG signal mining in recent years. The TL leverages existing data collected from other people to build a model for a new individual with little calibration data. However, brute-force tran
Robots, Jobs, Taxes, and Responsibilities
Ethical perspectives on recommending digital technology for patients with mental illness
The digital revolution in medicine not only offers exciting new directions for the treatment of mental illness, but also presents challenges to patient privacy and security. Changes in medicine are part of the complex digital economy based on creating value from analysis of behavioral data acquired by the tracking of daily digital activities. Without an understanding of the digital economy, recommending the use of technology to patients with mental illness can inadvertently lead to harm. Behavio
Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms (STARA): Employees’ perceptions of our future workplace
Abstract Futurists predict that a third of jobs that exist today could be taken by Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms (STARA) by 2025. However, very little is known about how employees perceive these technological advancements in regards to their own jobs and careers, and how they are preparing for these potential changes. A new measure (STARA awareness) was created for this study that captures the extent to which employees feel their job could be replaced by the
Algorithms for journalism: The future of news work
Software-generated news, sometimes called “robot journalism,” has recently given rise to concerns that the automation of news will make journalists redundant. These arguments follow a deterministic line of thinking. Algorithms choose information for users but are also the construct of social process and practice. The aim of this essay is to explore “the algorithmic turn” (Napoli, 2014) in news production. Based on case studies from three separate news outlets it is found that the impact of autom
Digitization in maritime logistics—What is there and what is missing?
The global seaports are of pivotal importance for the world economy. Since 1990, global container traffic has grown by an average of 10% annually. Equally, the steady growth of ship sizes poses major logistical and technical problems worldwide. Given these facts, shipping and maritime logistics would largely benefit from Big Data as well as the emerging digital technologies. Apart from the many positive effects of digitization in maritime logistics with respect to efficiency, safety and energy s
Healthcare Robotics.
THE USE OF robots in healthcare represents an exciting opportunity to help a large number of people.Robots can be used to enable people with cognitive, sensory, and motor impairments, help people who are ill or injured, support caregivers, and aid the clinical workforce.This article highlights several recent advancements on these fronts, and discusses their impact on stakeholders.It also outlines several key technological, logistical, and design challenges faced in healthcare robot adoption, and
Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems
The modern age has heralded a shift from the industrial society, in which natural resources are crucial input factors for the economy, towards a knowledge society. To date, sustainability literature has treated knowledge-and in particular digital artifacts-mainly as a means to the end of achieving sustainable development. In this conceptual paper, we argue that digital artifacts themselves ought also to be considered as resources, which also need to be sustainable. While over-consumption is a pr
A Review on Internet of Things for Defense and Public Safety
The Internet of Things (IoT) is undeniably transforming the way that organizations communicate and organize everyday businesses and industrial procedures. Its adoption has proven well suited for sectors that manage a large number of assets and coordinate complex and distributed processes. This survey analyzes the great potential for applying IoT technologies (i.e., data-driven applications or embedded automation and intelligent adaptive systems) to revolutionize modern warfare and provide benefit
State and Development: The Need for a Reappraisal of the Current Literature
This essay tries to bring out some of the complexities that are overlooked in the usual treatment of the state in the institutional economics literature and supplement the latter with a discussion of some alternative approaches to looking at the possible developmental role of the state. It refers to a broader range of development goals (including the structural transformation of the economy) and focuses on problems like the resolution of coordination failures and collective-action problems, the
Sharing of Tacit Knowledge in Organizations: A Review
Knowledge is regarded as a strategic factor in knowledge management implementation. It is mainly divided into two types: tacit and explicit. Tacit knowledge is created in the human mind as individual know-how and can be expressed as innovation. It is unwritten, unspoken and hidden vast storehouse of knowledge of a person. It is obtained as a result of the direct interaction between individuals and their peers in the organization. For the sustainable development of the modern global economy tacit
The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries
In recent years, there has been a revival of concerns that automation and digitalisation might after all result in a jobless future. The debate has been fuelled by studies for the US and Europe arguing that a substantial share of jobs is at “risk of computerisation”. These studies follow an occupation-based approach proposed by Frey and Osborne (2013), i.e. they assume that whole occupations rather than single job-tasks are automated by technology. As we argue, this might lead to an overestimati
How Technology Is Changing Work and Organizations
Given the rapid advances and the increased reliance on technology, the question of how it is changing work and employment is highly salient for scholars of organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OP/OB). This article attempts to interpret the progress, direction, and purpose of current research on the effects of technology on work and organizations. After a review of key breakthroughs in the evolution of technology, we consider the disruptive effects of emerging information and co
Is there a Publication Bias in Behavioural Intranasal Oxytocin Research on Humans? Opening the File Drawer of One Laboratory
The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) has been one the most studied peptides in behavioural sciences over the past two decades. Primarily known for its crucial role in labour and lactation, a rapidly growing literature suggests that intranasal OT (IN-OT) may also play a role in the emotional and social lives of humans. However, the lack of a convincing theoretical framework explaining the effects of IN-OT that would also allow the prediction of which moderators exert their effects and when has raised h
Information Fiduciaries and the First Amendment
Collection, analysis, and use of personal data increasingly affect everything we do in the information age, from our personal privacy to our opportunities for jobs, housing, travel, and health care. As algorithms for making decisions based on this data become more powerful, so too will the people and organizations who collect and use the data. Reformers will press for government regulation in the name of protecting personal privacy and preventing abuse and discrimination. In response, businesses
Are We Approaching an Economic Singularity? Information Technology and the Future of Economic Growth
What are the prospects for long-run economic growth? The present study looks at a recently launched hypothesis, which I label Singularity. The idea here is that rapid growth in computation and artificial intelligence will cross some boundary or Singularity after which economic growth will accelerate sharply as an ever-accelerating pace of improvements cascade through the economy. The paper develops a growth model that features Singularity and presents several tests of whether we are rapidly appr
The development of a Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool for Better Outcomes in Labour Difficulty (BOLD): study protocol
BACKGROUND: The partograph is currently the main tool available to support decision-making of health professionals during labour. However, the rate of appropriate use of the partograph is disappointingly low. Apart from limitations that are associated with partograph use, evidence of positive impact on labour-related health outcomes is lacking. The main goal of this study is to develop a Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool. The primary objectives are: to identify the
Teacherbot: interventions in automated teaching
Promises of ‘teacher-light’ tuition and of enhanced ‘efficiency’ via the automation of teaching have been with us since the early days of digital education, sometimes embraced by academics and institutions, and sometimes resisted as a set of moves which are damaging to teacher professionalism and to the humanistic values of education itself. However, both the embrace and the resistance can be seen to be anchored in a humanistic orientation to the project of education which recent work in the the
A Literature Review on New Robotics: Automation from Love to War
This article investigates the social significance of robotics for the years to come in Europe and the US by studying robotics developments in five different areas: the home, health care, traffic, the police force, and the army. Our society accepts the use of robots to perform dull, dangerous, and dirty industrial jobs. But now that robotics is moving out of the factory, the relevant question is how far do we want to go with the automation of care for children and the elderly, of killing terroris