Article : robots
Are #Robots tomorrow’s
employees or employers?
Are Robots tomorrow’s employees or employers is the question in high
rotation at the moment and one I get asked almost daily in the media, at
conferences and in Board Room discussions.
T
here is a growing belief that robots are set to
live up to their Hollywood hype and take over
the world and that human jobs are doomed
and that we’re all doomed to be unemployed, penniless
and useless, but the truth doesn’t match the hysteria.
We are definitely seeing more machines, robots,
androids, drones and bots around us performing jobs
that were once done by human hands and minds
and yes some people are losing their livelihood and
sometimes their careers and nothing good can be
said of that and there is a figure banding around
that 500,000 Australian jobs will disappear in the
next decade as we move to greater automation, but
all of this can’t be put down to an anthropomorphic
robot uprising instead its blame lies squarely with the
collective human preference to want to pay for the
cheaper and faster end results of a machine over the
slower and often more expensive output of a human.
But even with an ever-increasing automated and robotic
workforce we will still have a net increase in jobs and
employment over the next decade and beyond. We’ll still
have more people move out of a 9-5 work status
and instead they’ll work when and where is appropriate
leading to a huge rise in contingent and freelancing jobs
as industry reshape themselves and new jobs and tasks
are born.
We are definitely going through a pimply teenage-like
period, where all things seem dramatic and the future
uncertain, but we know from past experience that
tomorrow will bring with it new challenges, but also
many opportunities, some of which will include robots,
but many of which will not.
Have a listen to these on-air segments with 4BC’s Kim
Mothershaw and ABC radio Far North’s Phil Staley, as we
explore robots in the workforce, explain the difference
between robots, drones and androids and take a look at a
near world where humans and robots live side by side.
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WANT MORE?
Click below to listen to the interviews with:
4BC & ABC FAR NORTH