Some farmers have turned to a high-tech solution to improve yields and reduce costs. For example, harvesting combines introduced this year by Deere & Co. include high-resolution cameras and sensors linked to AI software. The system monitors grain as it's collected and adjusts dozens of settings on the combine in real-time to maximize how much grain is chopped from each stalk and to minimize waste. An X-9, as the new machine is called, can harvest a field 45% faster than Deere's older equipment lacking the automated system, and it uses 20% less fuel.
+ Fortune
How Amazon automated work and put its people to better use
For the past decade, Amazon has been pushing to automate office work under a program now known as Hands off the Wheel. The purpose was not to eliminate jobs but to automate tasks so that the company could reassign people to build new products — to do more with the people on staff, rather than doing the same with fewer people. The strategy appears to have paid off: At a time when it’s possible to start new businesses faster and cheaper than ever before, Hands off the Wheel has kept Amazon operating nimbly, propelled it ahead of its competitors, and shown that automating in order to fire can mean missing big opportunities.
Alex Kantrowitz
The trick is to work alongside robots rather than try to compete
There are two big worries about the economy in public debate. Two big, and contradictory worries. One is that we had better get used to flat-lining productivity, that the 2 percent a year labor productivity growth of the entire post-war period will turn out to have been an aberration. The other is that robots are going to take all the jobs, from driving vehicles to reading legal documents, within the next 20 years.
Diane Coyle
You’re not as smart as you think you are
Human cleverness arises from distributing knowledge between minds, making people think they know more than they do.
+ Economist