The number of American workers who quit their jobs during the pandemic--over a fifth of the workforce--may constitute one of the largest American labor movements in recent history. Workers demanded higher pay and better conditions, spurred by rising inflation and the pandemic realization that employers expected them to risk their lives for low wages, mediocre benefits, and few protections from abusive customers--often while corporate stock prices soared. At the same time, automation has become cheaper and smarter than ever. Robot adoption hit record highs in 2021. This wasn't a surprise, given prior trends in robotics, but it was likely accelerated by pandemic-related worker shortages and Covid-19 safety requirements.

The use of robots in the workplace has more than double in just a 12 year period, displacing 50 percent of many human workers across the US, studies have found. A new interactive map provides more detail into this'robot exposure' by highlighting the top 10 metropolitan areas threatened by this machine takeover – California being listed as number one. In addition to areas most at risk, experts found that automation is displacing younger, less-educated and minority workers at the highest rates. The study and map were developed by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City, which looked across more than 250 metropolitan areas to understand this'robot intensity'. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana, California were ranked number one, followed by Chicago, Naperville and Joliet in Illinois.

It's probably fair to say that in the history of politicking, few politicians have publicly declared what to do about America's crumbling malls, or how to provide free marriage counseling for all, or how to make filing taxes fun. But Andrew Yang, who's gunning to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, certainly has--and those are the more minor concerns among a dizzying list of 80 policy positions on his campaign website. It's an indication that Yang is running a rather methodical, data-driven, science-happy campaign. He's applying that approach to more standard issue problems, like labor, climate change, and the economy, but giving them a decidedly tech-forward approach: how (and why) we should define robots, what use might geoengineering have in saving the planet, and should the government embrace universal basic income and give every American a $1,000 check. Yang talked with WIRED about all this and more in a recent interview.

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) cites that between 2010 and 2016, 136,748 robots were shipped to the US --the most in any seven-year period in the US robotics industry. At the same time, US manufacturing employment increased by 894,000 and the unemployment rate fell from 9.8% to 4.7%. Yet manufacturers, robotics associations, ethicists and media pundits are still fighting the robotics and jobs issue. Brett Brune, Editor in Chief of Smart Manufacturing magazine, argues that "the hand-wringing around robotics and jobs in the US really needs to stop." Manufacturers around the world, including in China, are busy figuring out how quickly to acquire robots.

Layer by metal layer, a complex component began to take shape with the help of an additive manufacturing machine -- known as a 3-D printer to most people -- and a clutch of USC engineering students at the region's newest center devoted to building better stuff and creating jobs. The part was being made for a Southern California company that was trying out an improved design but didn't have the machinery to produce something involving complicated shapes and angles. "We looked at the geometry and said'we should be able to,' and we printed it for them," said Satyandra K. Gupta, a USC professor and director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The collaboration with the company, which had asked Gupta for complete secrecy to avoid tipping off competitors, was one of the first for the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The facility opened in February as part of a $253-million Defense Department-sponsored consortium of dozens of corporations, schools, nonprofits and local governments around the country.

Economists have long argued that automation, not trade, is responsible for the bulk of the six million jobs shed by the manufacturing sector over the last 25 years. Now, they have a put a precise figure on some of the losses. Industrial robots alone have eliminated up to 670,000 American jobs between 1990 and 2007, according to new research from MIT's Daron Acemoglu and Boston University's Pascual Restrepo. The number is stunning on the face of it, and many have interpreted the study as an indictment of technological change -- a sign that "robots are winning the race for American jobs." But the bigger takeaway is that the nation has been ill-equipped to deal with the upheaval caused by automation.

When the government provides a basic income to all citizens of the country without any conditions attached, it is termed as universal basic income. It is a form of social security. There is increasing debate in the developed countries about the introduction of Universal Basic Income. The combination of four factors, globalization, outsourcing, automaton, and the increasing adaptation and use of artificial intelligence is taking a growing toll on the low-income and middle-class sections of the society in developed countries, which is prompting the debate for the introduction of universal basic income. In Canada, manufacturing employment has decreased.

The hitch reflects a much bigger technological challenge facing China's manufacturers today. Wages in Shanghai have more than doubled in the past seven years, and the company that owns the factory, Cambridge Industries Group, faces fierce competition from increasingly high-tech operations in Germany, Japan, and the United States. Last year the government of Guangdong, a province that contains many large manufacturing operations, promised to spend 150 billion equipping factories with industrial robots and creating two new centers dedicated to advanced automation. Despite the challenges, Day Chia-peng, general manager of Foxconn's automation technology development committee, says the company is automating a growing number of tasks on its lines.