IEEE Future Directions
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Take a look at the interesting article published by the Los Angeles Times. It addresses the no-issue of robots replacing humans in many jobs. I say no-issue because according to Pew Researcher Center in the US 80% of the people interviewed are sure that robots will not replace their jobs, at least for the next 50 years (by which time it would really be a "no-issue").
However, my feeling is that this 80% of people interviewed are going to be proved wrong, the hard way.
You might remember the study released by BBC in September 2015 with a nice job-in-jeopardy calculator, showing that many many jobs are going to be affected by robots. Actually, people working on robotics go as far as saying that no job is safe, because robots are, or will be, able to do the same job of a human and do it more reliably and cheaper.
If you ask me, I’ll tell you that my job cannot be done by a robot. So will tell you all people you will ask the same question: for each of us our job cannot -it’s clear- be done by a robot. And yet companies in the US have spent 1.8 billion $ to do just that. Develop robots that can replace people in a variety of jobs.
We put the human touch in any job we are doing, but the point is that often such a human touch is not needed, sometimes it is even counterproductive!
Robots are rapidly getting smarter, more flexible, able to learn and to interact one another and with us. This is the result of a perfect technology convergence, bringing together Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, sensors, smart materials, (local) communications networks, the Cloud and more.
In Japan and South Korea robots are becoming a normal presence in shops, restaurants and hotels. And the crucial point here is the "normal". People are getting so used to see and interact with robots that no longer are paying attention to them. Remember that successful technologies are the ones that morph into everyday life disappearing from users’ perception.
You may want to play with the "job-in-jeopardy" calculator and see what is the danger waiting you as we will turn into the new decade.
