On a Games at Work busy day — the co-hosts start with follow up to the last two episodes dealing with smart speakers about the new HomePod being released.  While not said on the show, Michael M is looking forward to experiencing the dulcet tones of the Games At Work podcast on his HomePod in just a short few days!

Robotics & automation loom large for this episode with many stories converging on the concept of whether automation will be a net job destroyer or creator.  The MIT Technology Review article gives a comprehensive snapshot of a variety of sources estimating the net jobs created and lost due to advances in AI — and the need for advanced education as the technology behind smart speakers and virtual assistants begins to take hold in the knowledge economy in the same way that physical robots have in warehouses and assembly lines.  Education is key to the new roles being created and in preparing people for the next set of opportunities: how Artificial Intelligence bots are trained to do their jobs, the human-computer interface design, the maintenance of these systems as well as the integration to other systems.

Moving from virtual robotics, to physical robotics, Michael and Michael talk about the new Cyberdyne Medical Exoskeleton HAL.

Continuing the trend of finding examples of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the Games At Work team found two compelling stories published in the MIT Technology Review:

Joining AI and AR, the article on a lidar-enabled augmented reality experience to help construction workers know when something is not correctly installed can easily save time and money by making improvements when it is the easiest to do so.

The US Ski Team is taking advantage of virtual reality for practice on slope visualization to prepare for the Olympic events.  Michael and Michael talk about the idea of using an augmented reality version of this to show the optimal apex & route, taking advantage of snow conditions to guide the skier, in a rich HUD fashion in the ski goggles.

Finishing up the episode, Michael and Michael conclude with a couple of intruding games, including TrapAdventure 2, a Mario Brothers-esque side scroller that had us in stitches, and the South Park game which requires player vs player gameplay in order to advance the storyline and upgrade (hence the tile of this episode!).

Hope you enjoy!

Selected Links

MacRumors article:  HomePod: Apple’s Smart Speaker, Order New for February 9 Launch — https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/homepod/

MIT Technology Review article:  Every study we could find on what automation will do to jobs, in one chart — https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610005/every-study-we-could-find-on-what-automation-will-do-to-jobs-in-one-chart/

The Impact of Automation on Everyday Life by Irving Wladawsky-Berger —

http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2018/01/the-impact-of-automation-on-everyday-life.html

Microsoft:  The Future Computed ebook — https://news.microsoft.com/futurecomputed/

NPR article:  ‘Don’t Think A Robot Could Do This’: Warehouse Workers Aren’t Worried For Their Jobs — https://www.npr.org/2018/01/25/579160550/don-t-think-a-robot-could-do-this-warehouse-workers-aren-t-worried-for-their-job

IEEE Spectrum article:  Cyberdyne’s Medical Exoskeleton Strides to FDA Approval — h...