Will Robots Take Your Job?

Last week I wrote a blog post about Artificial Intelligence. I wrote about its future, its developments, and the sci-fi aspect of it. I touched on the idea found in many novels and movies about a dystopian robot future, where robots had taken over humanity for their own gain. I personally do not think this a real issue that we should be worrying about, but there is a similar, yet almost equally pressing issue I think we as a society should be worried about: Job Automation.

Bowling alley pinsetters setting up the pins for clients.

Have you ever used the self-checkout aisle at a grocery store? What about an ATM? When was the last time you ever talked to an operator when trying to make a phone call? Cashiers, bank tellers, and telephone operators are just three jobs that are in varying stages of automation, and all of which will be extinct in the future. In the US telephone operators are few and far between, even though they were almost vital for phone communication in the 20^th century. Bank tellers are still very common, but unless you’re doing a complex transaction just about anything you do with them can easily be done via an ATM. While self-checkout machines are sometimes tedious to use, their technology is constantly improving. It’s estimated that there are at least 430,000 self-checkout machines in use globally today, which is more than quadruple the amount in use in 2008.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Technologies are emerging today and will be emerging in the near future that will begin the process of taking more jobs away from humans. People who drive for a living (e.g. taxi drivers, semi-truck drivers, bus drivers) might not seem like they are at risk of automation, but self-driving cars are becoming more and more of a reality. Recently Tesla Motors introduced a new feature in their cars called the Autopilot mode, which allows the car to automatically drive itself on certain roads. Because it is relatively primitive technology, the driver is strongly encourage to keep his/her hands on the wheel anyway, and it sometimes will not work if the markings on the road are not easily visible. Other companies like Google and Apple are working on their own versions of completely self-driving cars, and the CEO of Uber has stated that the company plans to transition to automated cars once they become common enough to do so. In the case of a semi-truck driver, it is more economical to hire a self-driving truck than a human driver. A self-driving truck doesn’t have to stop to rest, does not have to eat, and is less prone to accidents.

Many fast food jobs are already in the process of being automated. In Canada, McDonald’s has been rolling out self-serving kiosks that feature a touchscreen the customer can use to input his/her order, without having to interact with any humans. In France, these self-serving kiosks have been in use for over a decade, and they handle about 40% of customers that come into their restaurants.

Some people argue that artificially intelligent robots are not capable of creativity, so jobs that require imagination like writers, artists, and composers are protected from this kind of automation. Unfortunately, this is not true. There are already robots capable of watercolor paintings, writing news stories and quarterly reports, and even ones capable of composing music. UC Santa Cruz professor David Cope created an AI named Emily Howell, which is capable of creating musical compositions, and has so far released two albums. 

So what can be done about this? According to The Economist, 47% of all jobs will be automated by 2034, and no government is prepared for that type of situation. During The Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the US was about 25%, which means that if something is not done soon, we could soon see the highest unemployment rate in the history of the US. The idea that you must work to make a living will no longer be sustainable, and thus we may end up needing a new system to survive on.

Many technologists and futurists have suggested the idea of a basic income, which would be a guaranteed minimum income that would be just enough for a person to provide the basic necessities they need in their life like food and shelter. This understandably makes some people uncomfortable, especially in the US, as it is reminiscent of extreme left-wing ideas of redistributing wealth and creating a communist style economy. Nevertheless, job automation is an issue that we as a society will be facing in the very near future, and as of right now, we are not prepared to face the ramifications of this change in the way our economy works. This is just one of many ways technology will greatly impact our lives in the future, for better or worse.

-Erik B.

Sources:

Aun, Fred J. "Report: Retail Self-Checkouts To Quadruple By 2014." FierceRetail. FierceRetail, 22 July 2009. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.  

Hine, Lewis Wickes. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys. Digital image. Library of Congress, Apr. 1910. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.

Kiss, Jemima. "Uber: 'we'll Ease the Transition to Self-driving Cars'" The Guardian. The Guardian, 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015. 

Rundle, Michael. "Half Of All Jobs Will Be Automated By 2034." The Huffington Post UK. Huffington Post, 17 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.   

"Tesla's Autopilot System Is Creepy And Wonderful." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.