‘Deployment of robotics will follow the general technical level in a society’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Are robots a boon or a threat to human beings, especially when it comes to jobs?
Robots will be a big boon for humans in most situations including in a professional environment. Robots will not generally be a threat to humans. As any powerful technical system they should be designed, deployed, operated and maintained with safety as the main objective.
As to their impact on the labour market, overall their impact will be positive. They will reduce risks for humans in the work place as they will do the most dangerous and repetitive work.
Is the robots-taking-jobs argument exaggerated, as there are still jobs waiting to be filled?
Yes, highly. Ask anyone that has tried to automate anything and it becomes clear that robots will need human guidance in many situations for a very long time. Robotics and automation will play a larger and larger role, but mainly as a tool for humans rather than as a replacement of them.
While robots are adapting fast to new roles, are their human counterparts slow in doing so?
Robots can only expand into new roles with the pace that humans in those fields get ready to work with them.
Compared to the advanced economies, robot penetration in India is still low. Will there be a dramatic change in the near future?
No, in general the deployment of robotics will follow the general technical level in a society. There is however an opportunity to skip intermediate solutions and go directly for a robotics solution and that could provide a significant advantage.
Finally, will man and robot co-exist in harmony?
Yes. If robots will not co-exist with humans in the way we like them to, we will redesign them to do so.
Per Sjöborg is the founder of Aptomica AB that aims to rent out everything in modular robotics that you need to build whatever you can imagine. He is also the host of Robots in Depth, an interview show with everyone in robotics and AI on Youtube. For subscription: http://bit.ly/RID_Sub