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What Brexit tells us

Thinking on, I wonder if AIs will also eventually replace politicians? Now that would be an interesting move. Or have I already seen that movie?

For Asimov's take on these issues, listen to the dramatisation of iRobot on Radio 4. Although why they can't just use the original characters and plot I have no idea.

Stephen
 
stephen bennett said:
I think that's a temporary blip. Sophisticated AIs won't suffer from these problems. They will have access to potential issues from right across the companies, and reply in natural language (or accent!) Initially they will learn from humans—then replace them.

Removing the thousands of employees (who do not always get things right anyhow) and employing a deep learning AI would save millions. I can't see companies walking away from that—their shareholders would demand it.

I think we are still in a world of pretty dim automated systems—but we are pretty close to getting some very smart ones.

Stephen
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Pressing a sequence of numbers when a supplier is contacted appears to be on the increase but there does appear to be a decline in foreign call centres or maybe i just don't deal with companies that do that type of call centre.
If there is a choice why would people use a company with foreign call centres unless they are much cheaper. When i ring a company i expect to have a conversation and not to be read a script. Some companies even give ring back so you don't even have to be on hold for ages.
 
Colin Barron said:
Pressing a sequence of numbers when a supplier is contacted appears to be on the increase ...
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Even that will change when an expert deep learning system answers your phone—that's the point. All these jobs will go along with those in finance, education, agriculture, law, journalism, manufacturing—unless we grasp the mettle now and plan for this.

I suspect that Trump and Le Pen's solution to this is a return to feudalism.

Stephen
 
stephen bennett said:
I suspect that Trump and Le Pen's solution to this is a return to feudalism.
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Trump is too stupid to grasp this future. I suspect his plan is simple : cut taxes, no matter the cost to the nation, and funnel money/contracts to business buddies, while using xenophobia and fear to maintain his base.

I don't for a minute think he has any long term master plan.
 
Rolls Royce, the jet engine maker, has reported a record loss of £4.6bn. Some of that (£6.7m) is down to some dodgy deals and settlements, but a fair bit is an indicator of how business works when costs are priced in Tory Brexit £s and sales priced in US $. A pattern we will no doubt see repeating (BBC Business).
 
Tony L said:
Rolls Royce, the jet engine maker, has reported a record loss of £4.6bn. Some of that (£6.7m) is down to some dodgy deals and settlements, but a fair bit is an indicator of how business works when costs are priced in Tory Brexit £s and sales priced in US $. A pattern we will no doubt see repeating (BBC Business).
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The loss was on their currency hedges - looks like they hedged too aggressively against a falling dollar and the opposite happened. In the long term if their earnings are mainly in dollars and their costs are in £ then brexit should help RR.
 
sean99 said:
The loss was on their currency hedges - looks like they hedged too aggressively against a falling dollar and the opposite happened. In the long term if their earnings are mainly in dollars and their costs are in £ then brexit should help RR.
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A hedge should reduce currency losses. Losses of this magnitude looks more like speculation.
 
wacko said:
A hedge should reduce currency losses. Losses of this magnitude looks more like speculation.
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They were hedged against a strong pound (which makes sense if their business costs are in sterling) - they weren't prepared for a brexit level sterling devaluation. If you read the BBC article it says their business deals span decades and in that context the pound trading at $1.20 was probably unimaginable when some of these currency hedges were taken out.

Sadly now it's reality.
 
sean99 said:
The loss was on their currency hedges - looks like they hedged too aggressively against a falling dollar and the opposite happened. In the long term if their earnings are mainly in dollars and their costs are in £ then brexit should help RR.
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Not when inflation caused by a weak pound causes costs to rocket it won't.
 
davidsrsb said:
I think a large proportion of their input costs like exotic alloys and tools will be priced in USD
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I'm sure their largest cost is wages so with Sterling reduced to toilet paper I think on balance they'll do fine.

I'm not defending Brexit but Rolls Royce might be one company to benefit.
 
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