“Chronic worker shortages have led many companies to invest in machines to do some of the work they can’t find people to do. They’ve also been training the workers they do have to use advanced technology so they can produce more with less.
The result has been an unexpected productivity boom.”
From Associated Press.
Our World in Data | Workforce Hours
“The average worker in wealthy countries now works only about half as many hours per year as in the late 19th century.
Based on data from economic historians Michael Huberman and Chris Minns, the average worker used to work between 2,700 and 3,500 hours per year, which is about 50 to 70 hours each week.
Recently, using data from the Penn World Table, workers worked about half that amount, between 1,300 and 1,800 hours a year, or about 25 to 35 hours a week.
This decrease has come from working fewer hours each day, fewer days each week, and fewer weeks each year.”
From Our World in Data.
“Taco Bell is set to expand the use of artificial intelligence voice technology in its drive-thrus to hundreds of US locations by the end of this year, parent company Yum! Brands said Wednesday.
The move means that when users pull up to place their order at a Taco Bell, there’s a good chance they will be talking to a computer, rather than a human employee, on the other end.”
From CNN.
“In a quiet industrial park in Charlotte, a small company is building drones and robots to revolutionize the American blue-collar workforce. And soon, those robots will be artificially intelligent.
Why it matters: Lucid Bots aims to become a leader in embedding AI into physical devices for a real purpose — creating robots that can take on dangerous work and freeing humans to pursue other meaningful tasks…
Right now, the company has one power-washing drone and a surface-cleaning robot on the market.”
From Axios.
“A robotic truck equipped with a 105-ft (32-m) telescopic boom arm has just journeyed from Australia to Florida. Now the construction robot will get busy churning out up to 10 houses in a bid to become the employee of choice for building entire communities.
The truck and its accompanying brick-laying arm is known as the Hadrian X and has been developed by robotics company FBR, which first announced its prototype in 2015. That machine could complete a full-sized house in two days. Last year, FBR (which used to stand for Fastbrick Robotics), showed off the new Hadrian X which, at top speed, could stack 500 USA-format masonry blocks per hour.”
From New Atlas.
