Long the prediction of futurists and philosophers, the lived reality of technology replacing human work has been a constant feature since the cotton gin, the assembly line and, more recently, the computer. What is very much up for debate in the imaginations of economists and Hollywood producers is whether the future will look like "The Terminator," with self-aware Schwarzenegger bots on the hunt, or "The Jetsons," with obedient robo-maids leaving us humans very little work and plenty of time for leisure and family. The most chilling future in film may be that in Disney's "Wall-E," where people are all too fat to stand, too busy staring at screens to talk to each other and too distracted to realize that the machines have taken over. We're deep into what-ifs with those representations, but the conversation about robots and work is increasingly paired with the debate over how to address growing income inequality -- a key issue in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. How should Americans deal with it?

"There's no simple answer," said Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley, an adjunct professor of neurological surgery at UC San Francisco and the author of a forthcoming book, "Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control." "But in the long run nearly all current jobs will go away, so we need fairly radical policy changes to prepare for a very different future economy. In his book, Russell writes, "One rapidly emerging picture is that of an economy where far fewer people work because work is unnecessary." That's either a very frightening or a tantalizing prospect, depending very much on whether and how much you (and/or society) think people ought to have to work and how society is going to put a price on human labor. There will be less work in manufacturing, less work in call centers, less work driving trucks, and more work in health care and home care and construction. MIT Technology Review tried to track all the different reports on the effect ...

General Motors Co said on Monday it will cut production of slow-selling models and slash its North American workforce in the face of a stagnant market for traditional gas-powered sedans, shifting more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles. The announcement is the biggest restructuring in North America for the US's largest carmaker since its bankruptcy a decade ago. Its shares rallied 7.6 percent to $38.66. GM plans to halt production next year at three assembly plants - Lordstown, Ohio, Hamtramck, Michigan, and Oshawa, Ontario. The company also plans to stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse.