2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Take a look around, and you will notice those changes that already seem familiar: robots surround us everywhere. They simplify our life, but sometimes it becomes scary: will robots take our work away?
Where robots have already replaced humans
Recently, the Henn-na Hotel (Henn-na Hotel) opened in Japan, in which 90% of the work is done by robots and 10 people cope with the remaining 10% of everything. Kokoro's robots are called actroids. They are adept at welcoming and accommodating guests by making eye contact and responding to movement. Some can communicate in foreign languages.
Hotel Henn-na, which literally translates from Japanese to English as "strange hotel", uses robots other than actroids, such as the humanoid robots NAO and Pepper from Aldebaran Robotics. Robots meet guests at the entrance and at the front desk, help them take off their coats and carry bags, clean the rooms.
The Henn-na Hotel is not the only one of its kind. In New York, there is YOTEL, in which robots take care of guests' belongings, make coffee, bring in laundry, clean rooms and do much more.
And last year, hotel giant Starwood unveiled robots called Botlrs. Serving guests, these robots can move around the hotel and in elevators without human assistance. Since 1992, robots have been helping in hospitals: delivering trays of food and medicine, washing bedding, and throwing out trash. In the Lowe's hypermarket chain, OSHbot helps customers find the right product.
Amazon uses over 15,000 robots in its warehouses to deliver orders on time. Even the US Army plans to replace tens of thousands of soldiers with robots. Last year at the University of Birmingham, the first 1, 8-meter-high security robot appeared at the University of Birmingham, who scans rooms and signals if he sees something unusual. If Bob gets stuck somewhere, he can call for help, and if he is discharged, he automatically goes to recharge.
Robots help to improve the productivity of remote workers. At the MIT Business School, employees who work from home can walk around the office and communicate with colleagues using robots.
How the ubiquitous adoption of robots will affect us
Robots are increasingly appearing next to us at work, so won't they completely take away jobs? Some people think that the widespread adoption of robots could put people on the street. In 2013, Oxford conducted a study according to which 47% of existing high-risk jobs will soon be automated. Within 20 years, people in these places will be replaced by robots.
However, there is another opinion: by giving the machines the hard work, people will be able to devote themselves to more interesting and high-tech pursuits. So says David Kann, head of Double Robotics, the company that created the robots used at MIT.
Robert Atkinson, an economist at the think tank at the Foundation for Technological Development and Innovation, argues that the conclusions that robots will take away jobs are based on an extremely cursory analysis of the situation. In fact, the opposite is happening: the adoption of robots is declining. Atkinson attributes this drop to two reasons:
- Thirty years ago, the United States invested much more actively in the development of robotics and software than it does now.
- Low hanging fruit like airport check-in machines have already been ripped off.
The third reason, according to Atkins, is that there is no productivity policy in the United States.
They could have done a lot to improve the country's productivity, but they are not even planning anything. Unlike, for example, Australia, which has a National Productivity Commission whose job is to identify growth opportunities. And we only assume what should happen …
And it’s more profitable for companies to hire people with low wages than to automate. There is no incentive to replace employees with robots. Now, if people needed to pay more, then companies would think about robotization.
For example, if the majority of low-paid professions demand higher wages, as the fast food workers did in New York, then the automation process will accelerate.
Harry Mathiason, President of Littler Mendelson Law Firm, which specializes in labor law issues in relation to robotics, has to say on this issue.
Harry Mathiason President of Littler Mendelson Law Firm
There is progress. In New York, fast food workers have already achieved a minimum wage of $ 15 per hour. It will soon be cost-effective for employers to outsource some of their work to robots. Accordingly, it will speed up the process of ubiquitous automation. Thus, we will be able to see robots everywhere in the next five years if we ourselves show economic activity.
Robots can take our jobs, but that's not a bad thing
Like Atkinson, Mathiason believes there is no cause for concern. He explains that the automation of 47% of high-risk jobs has nothing to do with unemployment.
Harry Mathiason President of Littler Mendelson Law Firm
People will begin to move to those positions that do not exist now, but they will appear in the future. If we turn to history, we will see that a similar situation has already happened. Then everything did not happen as rapidly as now, but nevertheless there were precedents. By the way, in 1870 70-80% of the population earned from agriculture, and now only 1%.
And, by the way, turning back to history, you can see that with the advent of new technologies in production, unemployment has always remained at the same level or even decreased. I really want to see what will happen over the next 10 years: for people in the first place will not be the threat of unemployment, but the opportunity to learn something new. And if a person has been doing one low-skilled job for 10 years, then, perhaps, the need for career growth will only be a joy to him.
Mathiason promises exciting times ahead. We will have to amend the Labor Code, answering questions related to the interaction of people and robots. For example, how to regulate the distribution of personal information, because robots will record what they hear.
Despite the fact that it is unknown how quickly robotization will penetrate into all areas, there is no doubt that this will happen. And while some continue to fear losing their jobs, others dream of how this will improve the economy as a whole and the well-being of every person. The productivity of companies will grow, they will earn more and will be able to pay workers more.
However, one of the controversies has not yet been resolved: what is it like when an actroid meets you at the hotel reception, who looks terribly like imitating human gestures …
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