The human race has come so far overtime. We went from living in caves and hunting down our food, to ordering any type of food you want on an app and getting it delivered to your doorsteps in a matter of minutes. In my opinion, where we’re at in technology is perfect and I don’t believe that advancements further than this are really necessary, it’s just a luxury. With technology expanding on a day to day basis, there are very high chances of it reaching into our workforce. Yes, it will absolutely make the processes easier for business owners, but how will it affect our day to day life?
With robots taking the place of employees, there can be a few positives. Companies will end up not having to pay for things such as healthcare and benefits, workers comp and cases filed against the workplace due to injuries will decrease, the accuracy of the work done will improve, and much more. Robots will speed up the process, but is that enough to improve society? With all these changes there can be negative outcomes, especially when it involves something so important as employment. What might those downsides be?
“In the US alone, between 39 and 73 million jobs stand to be automated- making up around a third of the total workforce.” (Vincent, 2017) What does a person do when all the jobs that they can qualify for are taken up by robots? There’s a chance that this will make the higher class thrive and the middle and lower class suffer drastically. Anyone with a minimum wage entry level job will find themselves unemployed and potentially homeless. Certain college degrees will be useless, such as in the 80s when the personal computer was introduced and many in the accounting industry lost their jobs. This was a minor change but it was the beginning of a whole revolution.
Although there will be a huge loss of jobs and an outstanding decrease in unemployment, there will be newer jobs introduced. If politics handles this situation properly and introduces these changes and advice to the public, there are chances things may run smoothly. Either way, most physical labor jobs will be replaced with AI and healthcare jobs will increase greatly. Any type of low or medium skilled job will decline and higher skilled and accredited jobs will be the ticket to getting by. Economies that are at a higher pace of development such as the US and Germany will be the first to face these changes.
The grass always seems greener on the other side and yes, getting the technology to eliminate expenses for employees and the amount of work that would be needed to perform these jobs does seem delightful. The whole idea of AI taking over the workforce is to eliminate full time jobs and open up more space for human beings to enjoy free time, life, and hobbies. In that case, I see where this may be an idea for improvement in society, but the truth is a hard cold thing and if this isn’t thought out in every aspect (financial, sociological, etc.) and planned accordingly, it could destroy us. I think starting with having robots perform tasks where humans can coexist in the same workplace might be a start but it is going to take a lot of deep thought and planning to allow this to run smoothly.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719092/automation-robots-jobs-global-800-million-forecast
Will robots and AI take your job? The economic and political consequences of automation