Automaton

This Automation Platform Helped Eliminate 40,000 Jobs, and Now It’s Available to Companies Everywhere

Over the last five years, the global management consulting company Accenture has developed proprietary automation software called the SynOps platform that it says has helped it cut 40,000 jobs within the company. First, allow me to apologize for being forced to string together some of the dullest words in the English language, as few industries…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 29

The Davos Elite Say the Public Will Have to Pay to Retrain the Workers They Automate Out of Jobs

One of the most egregious myths about automation is that it is a faceless and elemental force of nature that we puny humans are capable only of scrambling to adapt to. This is technological determinism at its most aggressive, and it’s generally a big fat fallacy. As I’ve tried to show in these pages, automation…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 22

The 8 Signs That Machine Learning Will Automate Some or All of Your Job

When we talk about how artificial threatens to impact jobs, we’re usually talking about how machine learning threatens to impact jobs. As the ‘hottest’ subfield of AI going, i.e. the one receiving the lion’s share of the research dollars and commercial investment, it’s pretty crucial to understand how, specifically, it’s going to roll out in…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 18

Merger Is a Hellish Articulation of Our Increasingly Accelerated and Incomprehensibly Automated Working Lives

In the world of Merger, the worker sits alone in front of a screen or eight, surrounded by a sea of constantly compounding data, anxiously trying to handle tasks as they rapidly pile up, and attempting to make sense of the nearly incomprehensible world it all somehow fits into. It’s a film apparently set in…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 15

The Shutdown Reveals Just How Automated Our Government Already Is

If you call the White House right now, thanks to the government shutdown, you’ll be treated to an automated message: “We apologize but due to the lapse in federal funding, we are unable to take your call. Once funding has been restored, our operations will resume.” The switchboard operators, like so many federal employees, have…

Politics Brian Merchant Jan 11

So You Automated Your Coworkers Out of a Job

During his first day on the job at a small 3D-modelling company, Griffith noticed that his new colleagues’ workstations were hopelessly out of date. So he took the initiative to suggest some automation upgrades to the higher-ups, who concurred. Two years later, 20 employees—some of them good friends—were out of work. “I feel bad because…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 9

Google’s Nod to a Universal Translator Was a Smart First Move in a Bid for AI Dominance This Year

Last year was a rough one on AI’s public profile, and rightfully so. Major programs powered by machine learning, like Amazon’s recruiting software, were revealed to be biased against women. Others were dangerously ill-conceived, like Predictim’s babysitter-vetting algorithm. Even some of the biggest tech companies themselves stood up and said, look, facial recognition is out…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Jan 8

The World Bank Says Robots Aren’t Killing Jobs Yet. Don’t Listen To It.

The World Bank has released its annual World Development Report, and the headline news this go round, as relayed by Bloomberg and others, is basically that “Robots Aren’t Killing Jobs.” Which, good news, if true. “This fear that robots have eliminated jobs—this fear is not supported by the evidence so far,” the World Bank’s Chief…

Tech News Brian Merchant Jan 3

The Biggest Sign Yet That Automation Is Taking Over at Amazon

The day after Christmas, Amazon celebrated its own annual holiday tradition: announcing record-breaking sales in a very long press release that affirms its status as the largest online retailer in the known universe. As such, Jeff Bezos’s Big Store said that in 2018, it surpassed its own sales records with “More Items Ordered Worldwide Than…

Commerce Brian Merchant Jan 3

The ‘Godfather of Deep Learning’ on Why We Need to Ensure AI Doesn’t Just Benefit the Rich

Martin Ford made waves with his 2015 book, Rise of the Robots, which details the many accelerating trends in automation and how they’re slated to impact business and, especially, employment. For his next book, Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building It, he, well, attempts to hone in on precisely what…

Artificial Intelligence Martin Ford Jan 1

This Was the Year the Robot Takeover of Service Jobs Began

Out of the three major sectors of the economy—agriculture, manufacturing, and service—two are already largely automated. Farm labor, which about half the American workforce used to do, now comprises around 2 percent of American jobs. And we all know the rust belt song and dance, beat out to outsourcing and mechanization. Which is largely why…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 20

The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry

Autonomous vehicles were supposed to make driving safer, and they may yet—some of the more optimistic research indicates self-driving cars could save tens of thousands of lives a year in the U.S. alone. But so far, a recklessness has defined the culture of the largest companies pursuing the technology—Uber, Google, and arguably even Tesla—and has…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 13

Here’s Who Stands to Lose Most as AI Sweeps the Globe

There is a lot more artificial intelligence, and it is sprouting and multiplying everywhere. In schools, in job openings, in media coverage. The number of AI-based startups, conferences, research papers, and patents is skyrocketing. That’s perhaps the simplest way to frame the findings of the 2018 AI Index Report, which collects data around a number…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 12

The First Sex Robot Was Conceived in Ancient Greece

The age of android brothels and lifelike sex robots may seem cutting edge—until you’ve heard the story of the man who had sex with his ivory sculptures, and the Greeks who habitually had public intercourse with statues. In an excerpt from her new book, Gods & Robots, a deep and lively look at how Greek…

Artificial Intelligence Adrienne Mayor Dec 9

The Five Most Worrying Trends in Artificial Intelligence Right Now

Artificial intelligence is already beginning to spiral out of our control, a new report from top researchers warns. Not so much in a Skynet kind of sense, but more in a ‘technology companies and governments are already using AI in ways that amp up surveillance and further marginalize vulnerable populations’ kind of way. On Thursday,…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 7

The Ancient Origins of Automation

The robots are coming for our jobs, artificial intelligence is ascendant, and invisible programs are taking over our lives. “Automation” is the word that comes up in each of those contexts and plenty more. It’s certainly one of the looming concepts of Our Times—a business imperative, an economic driver, a utopian ideal. We’re automating work,…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 7

Predictim Claims Its AI Can Flag ‘Risky’ Babysitters. So I Tried It on the People Who Watch My Kids.

The founders of Predictim want to be clear with me: Their product—an algorithm that scans the online footprint of a prospective babysitter to determine their “risk” levels for parents—is not racist. It is not biased. “We take ethics and bias extremely seriously,” Sal Parsa, Predictim’s CEO, tells me warily over the phone. “In fact, in…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 6

Introducing Automaton

Automation is killing jobs Automation is the future Automation is good Automation is bad Automation is coming Automation is inevitable According to one of our most infamous and widely experienced automated features, the searching masses are divided—or being divided, maybe—over just what it is that automation is doing. Still, if you want to take a…

Artificial Intelligence Brian Merchant Dec 6

This Automation Platform Helped Eliminate 40,000 Jobs, and Now It’s Available to Companies Everywhere

The Davos Elite Say the Public Will Have to Pay to Retrain the Workers They Automate Out of Jobs

The 8 Signs That Machine Learning Will Automate Some or All of Your Job

Merger Is a Hellish Articulation of Our Increasingly Accelerated and Incomprehensibly Automated Working Lives

The Shutdown Reveals Just How Automated Our Government Already Is

So You Automated Your Coworkers Out of a Job

Google’s Nod to a Universal Translator Was a Smart First Move in a Bid for AI Dominance This Year

The World Bank Says Robots Aren’t Killing Jobs Yet. Don’t Listen To It.

The Biggest Sign Yet That Automation Is Taking Over at Amazon

The ‘Godfather of Deep Learning’ on Why We Need to Ensure AI Doesn’t Just Benefit the Rich

This Was the Year the Robot Takeover of Service Jobs Began

The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry

Here’s Who Stands to Lose Most as AI Sweeps the Globe

The First Sex Robot Was Conceived in Ancient Greece

The Five Most Worrying Trends in Artificial Intelligence Right Now

The Ancient Origins of Automation

Predictim Claims Its AI Can Flag ‘Risky’ Babysitters. So I Tried It on the People Who Watch My Kids.

Introducing Automaton

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3 Is Doing What You Hoped

Wearables Are Getting Very Messy

Trump Wants to Start Privatizing TSA in Latest Budget Proposal

Lost Warship From Battle of Copenhagen Found After 225 Years

These One-of-a-Kind Objects Are in the Wrong Museums

Two Songs We Really Wish Were the Anime Outros for ‘Steel Ball Run’

AI Training Data Giant Mercor Is Reportedly Looking to Buy the Work You Did at Your Old Job

Utah Is Giving Dr. AI the Power to Renew Drug Prescriptions

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Let us help find what you are looking for...