We Like it Here in New Jersey According to the Monmouth Poll |
The Garden State Quality of Life Index by the Monmouth University Polling Institute says “More than 7-in-10 New Jerseyans rate their own town or city as an excellent (32%) or good (40%) place to live. Six-in-10 New Jersey residents say the state is either an excellent (15%) or good (46%) place to call home.” |
The Future of Work Discussion Continues |
 | NJ in Better Shape than Neighboring States Re: Automation’s Impact on Jobs, Says Speaker at Einstein’s Alley/NJBIA Event Educators, government officials and business executives focused on possible solutions to better educate, attract and retain New Jersey workers at the “Future of Work” held on October 13th in Princeton.
Excerpts from the discussions… To be prepared for the future, the state’s workers must become more technologically savvy as machines continue to replace humans in many jobs that require little or no technical skills. In her keynote address, Jane Oates, president of Working Nation, said there is a misconception that automation will displace only blue-collar and entry-level jobs. “There are many middle-class, white-collar jobs” that will vanish in the ongoing tech revolution, she said. NJ Tech Weekly | Marc Weinstein| 11.14.19 |
| The Future of Work Is Bright – for the Educated“I believe we are at a critical point in time in our country,” said Jane Oates. “If we are to continue to be the number one country in the world in terms of our workforce and the most creative and innovative businesses, we have a lot of work to keep doing.” As president of the California-based think tank WorkingNation and a former labor official for the Obama administration, Oates has dedicated much of her career to shaping America’s workforce of the future. She spoke at an October 23 conference on the “Future of Work” held by Einstein’s Alley and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. Oates says there are four major forces at work transforming the nature of work:
US1 PrincetonInfo.com | Diccon Hyatt | 11.06.19 |
| The Human Role in an Increasingly Automated Workforce Explored at Future of Work – Part 5NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka says the challenge is preparing students today for jobs that don’t exist tomorrow. “That’s why I keep coming back to the competencies … things like critical thinking, and teamwork, and data analysis. Those types of skills that can transgress across industry,” said Siekerka.
by Leah Mishkin, NJTV Correspondent |
What if You Had a Four-Day Week? Why Don’t You?People have been predicting a four-day workweek for decades, so what’s taking so long? | |
 The idea pops up every so often in expectant headlines. Just last week, Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent. Yet the four-day workweek is the flying car of labor: a profound advancement that has seemed just around the corner for decades. “In America? I’m not expecting it anytime soon,” said Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, who made the case for a shorter workweek to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. The reasons that a four-day workweek hasn’t yet taken hold are varied, Mr. Grant and others argue. Some barriers are institutional and some are cultural. And then there’s the most human reason of all: inertia. By Niraj Chokshi | The New York Times | 11.08.19 | |
| Math, Jobs and the Robot Future |
 Editor’s note: This is not a political statement or any kind of endorsement for Andrew Yang but this is an article that we thought Einstein’s Alley readers would find interesting. It’s standard by now for any bio of Andrew Yang, the 44-year-old New York businessman who is running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, to include a smirking reference to the “Robot Apocalypse.” Yang, however, is definitely not kidding. The central theme of his campaign is that technology is going to continue to put more and more Americans out of work-with devastating social consequences that we have not prepared for as a nation. BY NEWSWEEK Staff | 10/31/19 | Photo Mark Abramson/Bloomberg/Getty | |
| We Teach A.I. Systems Everything, Including Our BiasesResearchers say computer systems are learning from lots and lots of digitized books and news articles that could bake old attitudes into new technology.
Last fall, Google unveiled a breakthrough artificial intelligence technology called BERT that changed the way scientists build systems that learn how people write and talk. But BERT, which is now being deployed in services like Google’s internet search engine, has a problem: It could be picking up on biases in the way a child mimics the bad behavior of his parents. … |
As new, more complex A.I. moves into an increasingly wide array of products, like online ad services and business software or talking digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, tech companies will be pressured to guard against the unexpected biases that are being discovered. But scientists are still learning how technology like BERT, called “universal language models,” works. And they are often surprised by the mistakes their new A.I. is making. The New York Times | By Cade Metz | 11.11.19 | |
In Memorium |
| Angel Investor John Ason Passes | ||||
On a sad note, the New Jersey tech and entrepreneurship community mourns the loss of John Ason, a prolific angel investor and mentor to many tech entrepreneurs. Our condolences to his wife, Judith Sheft of New Jersey Innovation Institute, and the family. NJ Tech Weekly | |||||
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| The Einstein’s Alley website is for you. Check the Directory section and see the companies listed that you need to know. The website is also a great place for visibility for your company. Contact kkish@kennethg73.sg-host.com for information both on membership and on how to get a highlighted listing in the Directory. Or go directly to the website and download the form. What is Einstein’s Alley? Einstein’s Alley collaborates and coordinates with academic institutions, governmental and private sector organizations to grow NJ as a magnet for entrepreneurial activity and as a globally recognized talent powerhouse. | |