The year of the robots
According to an industry report, 2015 could be “The year of the robots” as the multi-billion robotics industry has grown larger and more sophisticated during 2014 and could explode in 2015. From self-driving cars, Unmanned airplanes to robots that care for the elderly people or to perform surgery in hospitals, this industry is expected to grow fast and bring huge profits to companies that design and engineer robots.
But several governments are debating on the consequences if they allow this industry to grow bigger. A government officer explained: “What happens to the people whose jobs could be eliminated by robots? Does this technology help companies work more efficiently or does it put a lot of people out of job? Economists already calling government to limit the development of robots as they strongly convince that full automation by sending works to robots will increase unemployment, while technologists and business people believe that usage of robots will increase profits and boost prosperity to the economy. A group of economists has predicted that robots can replace 40% of existing work and eliminate several million jobs within ten years. But several company owners believed that the robotic industry can add several million new jobs to the economy and improve current work conditions.
Regardless of different opinions and debates, today more robots are being used in the workplace. Most manufacturing are automated their assembly lines with robots with huge success and higher profits. The car industry is one of the early adopters of robotic technologies but the concern is not just manufacturing robots that are being used, office robots are also reshaping the workplace. Some companies are beginning to use robot receptionists for their offices as they are more efficient, polite, and often do not complain. Japan is currently having the best robot receptionists that look like beautiful girls and can answer over thousand questions. Many newspapers and magazines are using robot-writers instead of human newspaper journalists. For example, the Los Angeles Times automatically published news story just minutes after an earthquake occurs thanks to a special computer algorithm that generates the short article. It is predicted that most newspapers and TV will reduce 45% of their staff due to these sophisticated automated software writers. Some companies are beginning to use sales-robots to selling things instead of salesperson. A retail manager explained: “People like the sales-robots, they have all information that customer needed and can answer most questions so it is much better than a real person.” Security guard robots are being tested in several companies to patrol the facilities at night using infrared sensors and reporting anything to real persons in control room. A manager said: “Robot guards are even better than guard dogs because they work non-stop without foods. Last year, the number of these robots sold globally hit a record high of 379,000 but it is estimated that the number will hit a million or more this year.
Today the U.S., Germany, and Japan have invested more in robotics and automated technology, but even in countries with low-wage workers, there are clear signs of this technology adoption. Last year China has become the world’s largest buyer of these industrial robots. For example, Foxconn, a China-based assembler of Apple’s products such as iPhones, iPads which employs more than a million people, has declared that it is investing in automation technologies to help improve its intense workload. A manager said: “We plan to buy hundred thousands of robots to replace our workers as the costs of human workers are increasing and we have to put them in housing and feed them etc. and they often go on strike. Robots is much better and work harder without complain.” Even India is considered automate its manufacturing with robots too. According the robotics industry many robots are being brought in India last year as automation was important. An automobile manager said: “Companies in India are beginning to use industrial robots to produce more cars and automated the assembly lines to improve quality. Robots work better than human in term of quality as they do not make mistakes.”
Today companies across the world are using technologies to automate a whole range of jobs mostly for faster; better efficiency and higher quality and the use of robots is expected to accelerate over the next few years. Many manufacturing jobs, office jobs such as receptionist, secretary, typist, retail salesperson, are among occupations deemed highly likely to be automated in the next five years. A business manager said: “The lines between man and machine are becoming increasingly blurred. We are seeing many jobs automated already and many will be soon as machines are getting better, cheaper and widely used. However, automation will improve people’s livelihoods because most of the jobs in the future will involve special technology skills and higher salary. Manual and labor jobs will disappear but science and technology jobs will be in high demand. When a company saves costs, increase profits it will be willing to pay more for programmers, software developers and robotic specialists and that creates more jobs.”
According to the robotic industry, although machines have replaced human labors but at the same time, it also creates many new occupations and most of them are higher paying jobs. The questions are: “What will happen to labor workers who cannot find jobs? What will happen to countries that are depending on cheap labor and low cost manufacturing? The simple answer is: “Some thrive with new changes and others don’t. It all depends on how you adapt.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
