by Joanne PoonNo doubt our society has become much better than in the past, and people make better use of resources, especially human ones. It is believed that in the future, many jobs can be done by machines and robots. Human effort will be absent in many jobs. Although it may not be accomplished soon, some jobs are very easy to replace or have already been. Here are some examples:
Jobs That Can Be Replaced Easily 1. Manufacturing Jobs With the increasing cost of labor and the improvement of technology, much of the human workforce is being replaced by robots, especially in the clothing industry, as it requires a huge number of workers. Softwear Automation, an American high-tech company, has developed an automatic sewing machine production line called Sewbot, which can automatically complete the entire process of making clothes, from selecting fabrics to finishing the entire product without manual intervention. Adidas’s supplier in China is going to put Sewbot into its manufacturing chain. When Sewbot is running at full speed, a t-shirt can be made in 22 seconds, and eight hundred thousand t-shirts can be manufactured every day. Each production line only requires one worker to control the machine. The production cost of each t-shirt can thus be reduced to 0.33 USD. This may usher in big growth in the clothing industry because cheaper clothes with higher quality can come to the market. But on the other hand, many laborers will become unemployed. 2. Risky Jobs In order to protect humans, robots are being designed to replace risky jobs. For example, Japan’s construction sector is booming but contractors are struggling to fill labor shortages — a problem playing out in other parts of the world, including the U.S. There were about 3.4 million construction workers in Japan in 2014. That’s expected to shrink to 2.2 million by 2025. Robots are entering the workforce to help bridge this labor shortage. On construction sites, robots are often used for night shifts when no human workers are available due to safety and regulatory concerns. A major Japanese construction company, Shimizu Corporation, recently showed several robots, including one that picked up a big pile of boards and took them into an elevator. Robots can also take over some of the welding, shipping, and basic tasks involved in constructing a new high rise. But even so, robot labor only makes up about 1 percent of each project, based on current technology. 3. Service Industries Service jobs such as cashiers do not require many skills, therefore it is also one of the jobs that can be replaced easily. Internet retail giant Amazon released an advertising video in December 2016 to promote its “Amazon Go” smart physical store. There is no cashier and no need to wait in line. Customers can download Amazon Go’s smartphone APP and then access the store by scanning the APP’s QR code. When shopping, goods will be placed in the APP’s virtual shopping cart. If you change your mind, just put it back, the goods will be removed. After the shopping is completed, the system will automatically debit the consumer’s Amazon account as soon as they leave the store. 4. Data Analysis The examples given above are labor-intensive and can easily be imitated by robots. But in the future, skilled workers can be replaced too. Recently, Google announced that it would spend 622,000 GBP to invest in a “news robot.” It plans to create a news site that will work together with humans. When used, news robots use open source data on the internet to “edit” news. With artificial intelligence technology, they can “impersonate” reports by professional journalists based on specific writing styles and words to make the articles more personal. In addition, through machine learning and big data analysis, news robots can not only greatly improve the efficiency of writing, but also effectively filter out the potential false news. Moreover, it can “write” out 30,000 manuscripts each month. Perhaps one day robots will replace real reporters. Problems caused As far as factory work is concerned, for some tasks, the performance of human employees is far better than that of robots. However, many start-ups and research teams are working hard to overcome these technical hurdles. Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots, however, believes that reducing recruitment is only a matter of time. He believes the pace of job creation will gradually slow down. The McKinsey Global Institute report estimates that about 15 to 30 percent of job opportunities worldwide will be replaced by automation by 2030, and about 3 to 14 percent of the global workforce will be forced to face job conversions. The Problem is not a Problem However, Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon, believes that the increase in manpower demand for warehouses will continue. Historically, automation has increased productivity, which has also increased consumer demand to some extent, and has created more job opportunities. Even if Amazon’s warehouses become more technological, workers will continue to work in them. Actually, the MGI report shows that 56% of respondents believe that, with the help of automation, companies will create new jobs and new skills. Companies will see changes to the skills required for their jobs, and this will affect the future training and recruitment processes. In conclusion, much of the labor force will be replaced by robots in the future, but it will not increase the unemployment rate as people will keep learning and finding ways to adapt to a robot-led world. a
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May 2024
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