Rise of the Machines: Robots are after our jobs - Part 2

Before we go any further, I hope you read Rise of The Machines: Robots are after our jobs - Part 1, it sets out the introduction to this series.

Low Hanging Fruit

There are some jobs that, due to there nature are more vulnerable to automation. The level of sophistication of the replacing technology is not significant, generally they fall in the industrial/manufacturing sector that are mature in terms of automation tech and they are repetitive in nature. 

I call such jobs Low Hanging Fruit - easy targets for automation. 

The workers to be replaced are semi skilled. Their jobs involve doing simple tasks over and over again. The jobs require consistency in the quality and quantity of work and ceaseless productivity is preferred. 

Human workers are less preferred for such jobs because unlike computers and robots they are inconsistent in their quality of work, they cannot work for long periods without ceasing (in fact even their attendance at work is not consistent) and their output is low, even when augmented by machinery.

Robots and computers are preferred for such jobs because computer vision (required where the robots have to maneuver and work on products) is quite an mature field of study and has been used in industry for atleast three decades. Computers also excel at and are easily programmed to do simple tasks in a simple context, they do them faster more accurately and longer than any human ever could. Their consistent quality is another death knell in the coffin of the human semi-skilled worker.

Examples of jobs that are 'low hanging fruit' include; car manufacturing, heavy industry manufacturing, data entry (remember those lazy Roads Traffic Dept workers), front line customer care (call centers),  food processing, farming, front line bank workers and cashiers.

What jobs can you think of that will easily be replaced by robots/computers? Drop a comment and also give share specific reasons why you think the job will be automated soon.

 Now you must be wondering how I came to the conclusion that such jobs are vulnerable? Well I researched the topic ofcourse and I looked around me too. I see ATM's that offer cash withdrawals and take cash deposits (there go your bank tellers), interactive voice attendants (there go call center agents), car welding robots, cashless payment services (bye bye cashiers) etc etc. 

Now we have seen this before, except it happened to horses and not humans. We have used horses (camels and oxen too) as beasts of burden for literally thousands of years. Then in the 19th century steam engines came along and at the turn of the 20th century the automobile came along. These machines could carry more weight, faster, for greater distances -  worse still (for the horses at least) this new technology got cheaper and more accessible to the world. 

Despite millennia hard work of service to human kind, horses were replaced and their population has declined to a tiny fraction of their peak population in 1915. 

So human workers will be replaced not because they are lazy, but because the replacing technology out performs them significantly. Robotics, Computer vision, web technologies, sheer processing power and to a lesser extent artificial intelligence have made the human semi-skilled worker an endangered species.

Now before University educated, white collar workers kick back and relax - I've got some sobering news for you too!!!!!!

Until now computers have been programmed to a task. That is to say software programmers built software that enabled computers to perform increasingly complex tasks. I know this well, I've been doing this myself for the last 8 years.

However an interesting branch of Artificial Intelligence called Machine Learning has come of age. It involves creating software that enables computers and robots to learn how to perform any task. Robots can now observe a task being performed and learn how to do it too. In fact they can learn how to do it better and often find more efficient solutions faster than human comes. 

We'll look at machine learning and how its changing the once safe haven of highly skilled white collar work in my next blog post.

please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments -  catch you next time.