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Preparing For An Automated Workforce

As technology advances, certain jobs will be lost to machines and automation in the future. Some fast food restaurants are already using more self-serve kiosks instead of cashiers.
Beau Giles
/
Flickr Creative Commons
As technology advances, certain jobs will be lost to machines and automation in the future. Some fast food restaurants are already using more self-serve kiosks instead of cashiers.

North Carolina is home to a growing number of startup companies that are trying to stay ahead of today's constant need for innovation.

The upside of that innovation is business opportunity. Cities and states across this region are redirecting investments to try and claim the title of Silicon Valley of the South. 

But the downside is job displacement. As computer software becomes more sophisticated, more of our jobs are vulnerable to automation. So how do we prepare for the rise of computers in the workforce? That's the theme of this year's Emerging Issues Forum at North Carolina State University.

Host Frank Stasio previews the forum with Martin Ford, author of "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" and keynote speaker at this year's forum, and Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State.

The Emerging Issues Forum is February 8 and 9 in Raleigh.

Will Michaels is WUNC's Weekend Host and Reporter.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
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