Ticker: AI might not steal jobs; Companies are crafting new ways to grow cocoa

Artificial intelligence is beginning to allow many employers to automate functions long performed by human workers. Yet the recent experiences of a number of companies suggests that AI may not prove to be the job killer that many people have feared.

Instead, the technology might turn out to be more like major technological breakthroughs of the past — the steam engine, electricity, the internet: That is, eliminate some jobs while creating others. And probably making workers more productive in general, to the eventual benefit of themselves, their employers and the economy.

Nick Bunker, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said he thinks AI “will affect many, many jobs — maybe every job indirectly to some extent. But I don’t think it’s going to lead to, say, mass unemployment.

Companies are crafting new ways to grow cocoa

From California to Israel, companies are aiming to grow cocoa beyond the tropics in a bid to buffer chocolate’s key ingredient from climate change. In addition, those concerned with the impact of rising temperatures on the future of cocoa are crafting chocolate-tasting alternatives using other, more readily available ingredients.

The efforts come as the global demand for chocolate rises along with pressures on cocoa-growing farmers in West Africa and Latin America. Climate change is expected to impact cocoa crops around the equator as soils grow drier. The highly sensitive plant already is susceptible to devastating diseases.

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/YMzNJKF