Robots Might Take Our Jobs, but Maybe We Need Them to

upstart writes:

Robots might take our jobs, but maybe we need them to - Utah Business:

AI is no longer just the musings of sci-fi writers. AI is being implemented in automation technology to help with manual labor and other types of tasks. The technology is at a point where nearly every industry could implement it, and many already have. The question is no longer when will this technology exist, but what do we do now that it does?

[...] In 2019, 5,333 workers died on the job in America. The following year, Covid-19 changed the landscape of the workplace, bringing even higher levels of on-the-job risk to nearly every industry.

[...] According to OSHA, about 20 percent of workplace fatalities are in the construction industry. As automation technology advances, making it affordable for business owners to use is essential in order to protect laborers in the industry.

[...] Ben Wolff, CEO of Utah-based Sarcos Robotics, says, there are significant labor shortages expected in almost every skilled labor industry over the next decade despite the increase in the availability of automation technologies. The US is expecting a 2.4 million worker shortage in manufacturing from 2018 through 2028, as well as a $1.6 trillion global labor productivity shortfall in the construction industry."

Though a shifting labor market can be scary, human workers are not replaceable. Leading AI researcher, Andrew Ng, says, despite all the hype and excitement about AI, it's still extremely limited today relative to what human intelligence is."

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