The world's robot population is expanding quickly as sales of industrial robots are growing by around 13 per cent each year. People’s jobs are becoming threatened by the looming prospect of robots taking over jobs. Robots have already become lettuce-pickers, bartenders, and hospital porters. However, it is not soon before they begin to take over more high-skilled jobs, such as being a doctor or an accountant.
One would think that the rise of robots would strike fear within people with the potential loss of their jobs. However, according to a survey by Adecco Group, 54 per cent of employees believe robots will create more jobs rather than remove any over the next 10 years. Whilst not an overwhelming amount, it is evident that some see the benefits of the robots rather than being completely dismissive and worried about their potential repercussions.
To find out more about people’s feelings towards the development of robots, I asked Aravinth, an auditor, as to whether he feared the idea of a robot taking over his job. He explained, “A lot of the work is based on our interpretation, so it is subjective and would be difficult for a robot to do it as it cannot think in different ways like a human”. He finally stated that, “I can’t see it happening. It could potentially assist us, but we have the internet for that”. Whilst people similar to Aravinth have no qualms about the rise in robots, there is clear evidence to show that some people should fear the loss of their job as in a recent report, the World Economic Forum predicted that the development of robots will result in the net loss of more than 5 million jobs across 15 countries by 2020. A further study, conducted by the International Labour Organisation, supported these figures by stating that 56 per cent of the total workforce in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are at risk of replacement by robots, particularly workers in the manufacturing industry.
Whilst robots can easily overtake menial jobs, such as cow-milking, which the Swedish agricultural equipment manufacturer, DeLaval International, recently announced will be deployed at a small family-owned dairy farm in Westphalia, Michigan, this year, is there the possibility of robots btaining more prestigious titles? According to reports by the International Labour Organisation, by 2019, 30 per cent or more of the world’s leading companies will employ a chief robotics officer. There is always the fear of robots malfunctioning, but reports further claim that by 2018, almost one-third of robots will be smarter, more efficient and able to work safely alongside humans.
From the above studies, it is clear that whilst there is the expansion of robots in the low-skilled jobs sector; robots appear to be far from overtaking high-skilled jobs. To see whether people believed robots could overtake high-skilled jobs, I asked Sharanya, a trainee paediatrician, on her thoughts. She argued, “There is some worry in medicine that they are trying to make robots do medical work. There are lots of robotic surgical techniques currently, particularly in urology, but patients don’t fit algorithms, so unusual presentations may be missed leading to mistakes”. Whilst robots seem to have mastered surgical procedures, it is evident that the way are programmed restricts them from furthering their descent towards high-skilled jobs.
However, robots cannot service or program themselves, as of yet. In theory, this will create new, high-skilled jobs for technicians and programmers. However, for every job created by robots several more will be eliminated entirely. In the long-run, the development of robots will have a devastating impact on our workforce through the reduction of jobs and the elimination of human skills.
By Thamara Kumar, Nonsuch High School for Girls
