Latest news with #industrialRevolution
Irish Times
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Lunar Society is a cautionary tale for Trump's America
This week, America celebrates 1776 – that is, the moment on July 4th of that year when it declared independence from the British. But as the holiday unfolds, leaders in Washington should also consider a year that fell later in the same century: 1791. This was the moment when Britain discovered just how damaging political populism can be for scientific innovation. And while the episode is barely known in America, it ought to make for sobering reading there, particularly as President Donald Trump pushes his 'big, beautiful' tax and spending Bill through both houses of Congress. This is the story of the Lunar Society, a network of entrepreneurs, scientists and curious citizens that emerged in Birmingham in the mid-18th century. It was based around dinners held during the full moon to aid travel (hence its name). Over several decades, this network unleashed inventions that accelerated the industrial revolution, including the discovery of oxygen and carbonated water (Joseph Priestley), advanced steam engines (James Watt) and innovative ceramics (Josiah Wedgwood). READ MORE Think of it as an 18th-century version of Silicon Valley, a place where innovation erupted because key individuals were close to each other and operated in an intellectually diverse and free community with far fewer political controls than in places such as London. In 1791, Britain experienced a wave of political polarisation and populism. Mobs attacked Lunar Society workshops, innovators such as Priestly emigrated and the network crumbled. 'The damage went beyond physical destruction,' David Cleevely, a British entrepreneur, notes in a new book, Serendipity. 'The riots sent a clear message about the vulnerability of intellectual networks to political pressure ... and a climate of fear descended.' American scientists tell me that research programmes are being culled if they contain words or prefixes such as 'trans-', 'bi-' or 'gender' – even if used in connection with, say, 'binomial stars' or 'transgenic' mice This resonates 234 years later. In the US, there has been a wave of hand-wringing from scientists about Trump's attack on research. At Harvard, for instance, $2 billion in funding for (mostly) medical research is at risk because of the president's political vendetta against the university. At Nasa, half of the budget for scientific research is at risk under Trump's 2026 funding plans. Billions of dollars are slated to be wiped from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health budgets, too. Indeed, Cassidy Sugimoto, a professor of public policy at Georgia Institute of Technology, suggested this week in London that the totality of Trump's moves meant that science faced a '50 per cent cut' in all US government research funding. 'Trump has cut science funding to its lowest levels in decades,' she lamented. But what is as notable as these numbers is the fear aroused by Trump's political attacks on 'woke' causes (such as diversity) and the science that his populist supporters dislike (such as vaccine research). This is not just affecting institutions such as Harvard; American scientists tell me that research programmes are being culled across the country if they contain controversial words or prefixes such as 'trans-', 'bi-' or 'gender' – even if used in connection with, say, 'binomial stars' or 'transgenic' mice. 'It's Orwellian – like an artificial intelligence program just cuts anything with those words,' one eminent mathematician tells me. [ Trump administration's assault on science focused and co-ordinated Opens in new window ] In response, scientists are swapping secretive notes about how to avoid the censors. Internal battles have erupted at prestigious institutions such as the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine about whether or not to capitulate to Trump. Meanwhile, some scientists are leaving. In April, the journal Nature calculated that job applications by US scientists to institutions in Canada, Europe and non-China Asia were 41 per cent, 32 per cent and 39 per cent higher respectively in 2025 than 2024. And, this week, France proudly unveiled its first official group of US 'scientific refugees': an eight-strong cohort of researchers who are heading to Aix-Marseille university. Trump supporters tell me these departures don't matter, since they are just a drop in the vast ocean of American talent. The White House also insists that scientific funding structures were so bloated they needed an overhaul to unleash a new 'Golden Age' of science. Moreover, there is no sign that this assault has actually hurt the innovation machine in places such as Silicon Valley – or at least not yet. That is perhaps no surprise. In fields such as artificial intelligence, a growing proportion of research now occurs in the private sector. And many innovators in California are trying to shut out the noise coming from Washington and focus on their own projects instead. 'It's a coping tactic,' one tells me. But the moral of the Lunar Society saga is that no innovation network is safe. This attack is crazily self-destructive. So this July 4th, let us hope that Trump's shocking onslaught on science will be reversed. In the meantime, the country's business leaders and politicians urgently need to back lobby groups such as 314 Action, which is fighting Trump's plans, and speak up themselves. Think of that when you next see a bottle of sparkling water – and then remember 1791. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Forbes
08-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI-Driven Robots Are Rewriting The Factory Rulebook
In cognitive manufacturing, production is being transformed as humans increasingly work alongside ... More intelligent robots. We are entering a new industrial revolution, the cognitive industrial revolution, where manufacturing is again being transformed through the growing use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced robots, data, digital twins, and the internet-of-things (IoT). This revolution builds on the progress of the past by further automating, optimizing, and integrating intelligence into every aspect of production. It's an unparalleled economic disruption that will require timely knowledge and investment by leaders. At the leading edge of this revolution is the increasing adoption of robots. But these aren't the robots of the past. These are machines embedded with AI, something we now call physical AI, and behave with increasing amounts of agility and autonomy. A lot of us find robots fascinating and it's probably because they occupy an outsized role in contemporary science fiction literature and movies. For many, a combination of the Daleks from BBC's Doctor Who, and the droids, C3PO and R2D2 from Star Wars, form some early impressions. These narrow representations of robots probably limited our views of what role they could play in real life. The term robot means, surprisingly, but perhaps aptly, forced labor, and it's derived from the Czech word, Robota, first used in Karel Capek's 1920's play, 'Rossum's Universal Robots.' Robots are defined as mechanical machines, particularly those that are controlled by a computer and carry out complex actions. Robots can look like humans, we call them humanoids, but they're just as likely to take the form of a Roomba device that vacuums carpet, a single arm that welds metal joints in a factory, or a laparoscope in a hospital operating room. Unimate pouring coffee for a woman at Biltmore Hotel in 1967. While there's a rich history of experimental and functional robots, most agree that the first computer-based production robot was invented in 1954 by George Devol and was called the Unimate. One of its first jobs was at General Motors in Trenton, New Jersey, where it was tasked with lifting and stacking hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine. Today, robots are common in production line automation in the manufacturing industry. Other high use areas include food processing, healthcare, warehousing, and logistics. A peep into an Amazon fulfillment center illuminates the pervasiveness of robot use where they rapidly search for, identify, pick up, move, and pack products. Remarkably, across their organization, Amazon has over 750,000 robots performing these actions and more. Robots sort and transport packages at the Amazon Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky ... More International Airport (CVG) in Hebron, Kentucky, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Photographer: Jeffrey Dean/Bloomberg Today, significantly improved engineering coupled with AI is ushering in a new generation of robots and the era of cognitive manufacturing. These machines can perceive the world around them, make decisions and act autonomously to a degree, all while performing impressive movement. With less constraints, robots are showing success in mimicking a wide variety of human tasks. Many organizations are experimenting with and already deploying humanoids in areas such as human collaboration—the term cobot is used to describe when a robot assists a human in their work, and in a manufacturing context where tasks are dangerous, repetitive, or require significant strength. Perhaps the most striking development in cognitive manufacturing and robotics is the emergence of dark factories or lights-out manufacturing. This is when the entire production process operates independent of human participation. You could think of it as the ultimate end-state of automation. In these facilities, physical AI and smart machines are responsible for all aspects of production and they operate 24/7. With no humans, there is no need for salaries and health insurance, and no expenses such as heat and light, resulting in significant cost savings. The notion of workplace accidents goes away. The promise of the cognitive industrial revolution is a world where humanoids and other robots conduct complex artificial general intelligence (AGI) tasks in a fully autonomous fashion in every industry. This is also when robots will regularly and with ease do housework, babysit, cook food, deliver healthcare, and even provide companionship. Various projections suggest that in the years ahead there will be millions, perhaps even billions, of humanoids working alongside and as replacements for humans. Planning for a future of intelligent robots means thinking about how they might transform your industry, what it means for the future of work, and how it may change the relationship between humans and technology. Leaders must consider the ethical issues of cognitive manufacturing such as job disruption and displacement, accountability when things go wrong, and the use of surveillance technology when, for example, robots use cameras working alongside humans. The cognitive industrial revolution, like the industrial revolutions before it, will transform almost every aspect of our world, and change will happen faster and sooner than most expect. Consider for a moment, what will it take for each of us and our organizations to be ready for this future?
Irish Times
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Young people and AI
Sir, – In one of his first speeches as pope, Leo XIV outlined his priorities for his papacy. Interestingly, one of these is the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI). The pope believes that AI is a threat to 'humanity, justice and labour'. He said that this was one of the key reasons for him choosing the name Leo XIV. He had spoken previously about the impact of the industrial revolution on workers' rights. We are now arguably going through another 'industrial revolution' of sorts. Before, it was concerns that machines would replace people and take their jobs. Now it's the same but with AI. We adapted before and we can adapt again; not by trying to beat AI by being robots but by fully embracing our humanity – the qualities that set us apart from AI, qualities like our emotions, our ability to connect and build strong, trusting relationships and our ability to empathise. READ MORE If we are fully human, if we stop trying to beat AI at its own game, AI can never truly replace us, never truly do away with the need for real, human people in the workforce and in society. As a young person, I'm often asked the question, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' Whatever answer I give, the response is usually: 'Oh, that job will be done away it; AI will be doing it in the future.' But I remain hopeful, faithful that I will be needed in society. And that AI can't replace humans if we are truly human, fully ourselves. – Yours, etc, TESS LIFFEY, Birr, Co Offaly.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
This is how YOU can profit from the AI revolution: ANNE ASHWORTH reveals everything investors need to know - and which companies experts are backing
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our lives in a 21st century industrial revolution powered by semiconductors. The companies that supply these vital products - which are used to make microchips - may have seemed like a danger zone for investors of late.
