Headline, January 23 2022/ ESSAY : ''' '' WORK FUTURE WOKE '' '''

ESSAY : ''' '' WORK

 FUTURE WOKE '' '''

CREATING MORE - FOR THE WORLD AND LIFE AS ALWAYS : !WOW! and !A-WOW! The  World Students Society - for every subject in the world.

Where there's a wish - There's a way.

IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD : Machine Learning or let me put it greatly in a grandiose manner : A.I. and Automation can retard speed. Students need jobs in the markets and technologies that already exist. Students need to survive.

A Whole World Worth Watching. Stories, and rumors and dreams and wishful thinking from the developed faraway lands only go on to illuminate the blind spots in our perspectives.

''We need to redirect technology, so it works for people and not against them,'' Daron Acemoglu, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

How Technology drives inequality. Automation has widened the gap between the haves and have-nots, research shows.

Daron Acemoglu, an influential economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been making the case against what he describes as ''excessive automation.''

The payoff from investing in machines and software has been stubbornly elusive but he says the rising inequality resulting from those investments, and from the public policy that encourages them, is crystal clear.

Half or more of the increased gap in wages among American workers over the last 40 years is attributable to the automation of tasks formerly done by human workers, especially men without college degrees, according to some of his recent research.

Globalization and the weakening of union have contributed. ''But the most important factor is automation,'' Mr. Acemoglu said. And an automation-driven inequality is ''not an act of God or nature,'' he added.'' It's the result of choices corporations and we as society have made about how to use technology.''

Mr. Acemoglu, a scholar whose research makes him one of the most cited economists in academic journals, is by no means the only prominent economist arguing that computerized machines and software, with a hand from policymakers, have contributed significantly to the yawning gaps to incomes in the United States.

Their numbers are growing, and their voices have joined a chorus of criticism directed at the Silicon Valley giants and the unchecked advance of technology.

Paul Romer, who won a Nobel in economic science for his work on technological innovation and economic growth, has expressed alarm at the runaway market power and influence of the big tech companies. ''Economists taught : It's the market. There's nothing we can do,'' he said in an interview last year. ''That's really just so wrong.''

Anton Korinel, an economist at the University of Virginia, and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel economist at Columbia University, have written a paper, ''Steering Technological Progress,'' which recommends steps including nudges for entrepreneurs and tax changes to pursue ''labor-friendly innovations.''

Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at Stanford, is a technology optimist in general. But in an essay to be published this spring in Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he warns of ''the Turing trap.''

The phrase is a reference to the Turing test, named for Alan Turing, the English pioneer in artificial intelligence, in which the goal is for a computer program to engage in a dialogue so convincingly that it is indistinguishable from a human.  

For decades, Mr. Brynjolfsson said, the Turing test - matching human performance - has been the guiding metaphor for technologists, business people and policymakers in thinking about A.I. That has led to A.I. systems that were designed to replace workers rather than enhance their performance. 

''I think that's a mistake,'' he said.

The concerns raised by these economists have been receiving more attention in Washington, while giant tech companies are already under attack on several fronts.

Officials regularly criticize the companies for not doing enough to protect user privacy and say the companies amplify misinformation. State and federal lawsuits have accused Google and Facebook of violating antitrust laws, and Democrats have sought to rein in the market power of the industry's biggest companies through new laws.

Mr. Acemoglu testified in November before the House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth at a hearing on technological innovation, automation and the future of work.

The committee, which first met in June last year, will hold hearings and gather information for a year and report its findings and recommendations.

Despite the partisan gridlock in Congress, Representative Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat and the chairman of the committee, was confident the committee could find common ground on some steps to help workers, like increased support for proven-job training programs.

''There's nothing partisan about economic disparity,'' Mr. Himes said, referring to the harm to millions of American families regardless of their political views.

Economists point to the postwar years, from 1950 to 1980, as a golden age when technology forged ahead and workers enjoyed rising incomes. But many workers started falling behind. There was a steady advance of crucial automating technologies - robots and computerized machines on factory floors, and specialized software in offices.

To stay ahead, workers required new skills. Yet the technological shift evolved as growth in post secondary education slowed and companies began spending less on training their workers.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Business, Automation, The Market, and Jobs creation, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Steve Lohr.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all  prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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