A man that works at a factory wakes up and heads to his job. This is no ordinary factory however, this place employs robot workers as well. The man clocks in and heads to his post his co-bot is there to greet him. "Good morning" says the bot and the man replies with a good morning back. The man's job is to construct intricate devices and to load then to the dock. The man gathers some materials and hands them to the co-bot. The man works on assembling another part of the device while the co-bot begins to organize the parts for the man. The man finishes parts of the device while the co-bot takes over the more complex and precise tasks. Finally man commands the robot to go deliver the device to the dock while he goes and fetches more materials for the next set of devices. While it would make since for the robot to do everything in the process, it does not possess the ingenuity and quick problem solving skills of the man. In another part of the factory, a woman is trying to teach a newly constructed co-bot to process command and to follow protocol. At that very moment, the robot is processing the database of the entire factories information so that it can better help the human employees in the factory. The boss of this factory has a system to go and assist employees and send co-bots wherever they are most needed. Elsewhere a engineer is patching up defective co-bots and checks other co-bots for daily maintenance. He would know best about what is wrong with the robots including knowing better than the other robots. Back at the station with the man, he sends the robot to loads one of the devices on to palette. Another employee takes the fully loaded palette and loads it on to a semi truck. This truck driver is a human with a AI system on board to track orders and to choose out the best routes for the driver while he is driving. No matter how smart the robot is, he lacks the experience and knowledge obtained by this truck driver (plus it cannot refill gas). At the end of the day, the man and all of his co-workers clock out while a security guard leads a group of surveillance co-bots that are designed to recognize people in the workplace database and those who are outsiders. The security guard opens up the doors for the factory in the morning and waits for people to come in and begin their day. The man wakes up to his job at the factory and heads to his job.
Artifact 2: Analysis Piece
The main fear that comes with the development and progression of AI is them taking over all forms of work leaving a select amount jobs available to the public. What some experts are proposing however is that there can exist a future that employees both human and artificial workers. Right now, there has been an influx of new technology being integrated in many workplaces, but none of them are completely automated at the moment or require some sort of human assistance whether it is repair or updating the program.
An article from The Economist actually thinks that Ai can be beneficial for human workers as well. They explain that the Ai can have a system to check if the workers are taking active protective measures before going in to a more dangerous area of the workplace. This article is even advocating that AI would be a good manager for human workers. They can manage wages giving promotions to those who are deserving. AI will not abuse the position over others that some human bosses will possess. However the drawbacks of having a Ai as a manager is also listed. Considering that AI will look for productivity over all else, they might disadvantage those who are older or those that are handicapped or injured. The system might feel like overservalence as the article would describe “Orwellian”. People nowadays are more sensitive about their privacy more than ever considering these giant tech companies like Facebook that gathers massive amounts of information that they gather from their users. Veriato, a tech company in Florida, even goes as far as key stroking everyone of their workers on their work computers to analyse whether the employees are loyal to the company.
If AI’s are programmed to visualise the best possible outcome for the economy. Then I think it would recognize that the flow of money would be halted if machine maintained most of the workforce. Most of the time a company would want help AI to make decisions and cover multiple small tasks simultaneously. Something that AI workers do that nobody seems to mention is the benefit it has towards human workers. Take chatbots (defined as an automated, yet personalized, conversation between software and human users by Forbes.com) for instance, they serve as a very competent HR representative. “92% of HR leaders agree that the future of providing an enhanced level of employee service will include chatbots.” says Jeinne Meister of Forbes.com. From this we can learn that AI actually can serve more of a purpose then we initially give it credit for. There are obviously a good amount of jobs that can be covered with AI alone, but some jobs that require more of a human element such as hiring. I believe the hiring process should be kept between humans to examine things such as personality, work ethic, and trust.
In retrospect, while it is a possibility for the AI to completely take over all jobs leaving none left, I think if we plan this out correctly, there should be more options to consider before we immediately surrender this thought and let this type of future take place. While AI is capable of handling many jobs, even managing an entire part of a company, it has been explained that it is not all positive from hiring AI workers for curtain jobs that can be covered by AI.
Work Cited:
Meister, Jeanne. “The Future Of Work: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform The Employee Experience.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2017/11/09/the-future-of-work-how-artificial-intelligence-will-transform-the-employee-experience/#728efb423c96.
www.economist.com/leaders/2018/03/28/the-workplace-of-the-future.
Artifact 3: Prediction Paper
It is hard to predict what will happen in the next few years, about ten years in the future, regarding AI replacing people in the workplace. Using data from previous eras where technology was improving, it can perhaps tell future events or similar situations. What I am mainly going to be focusing on is the manufacturing industry due to the fact it changes the most through time.
First off, it is only natural that some jobs will be covered by robots and become less commonplace. I think this will be for very low skill jobs that people generally do not want to do. For example, a robot that can assemble really small parts. Regarding jobs that are most intense and potentially dangerous that were so prevalent in the industrial revolution. I think it is also safe to have robots take over, though if it is a very persis job, then the robot can be potentially controlled by a human. In the past the adaptation of technology was designed to assist in making work easier. This can be done through the development of more advanced of AI. As explained in my video from the first artifact, a company known as UBER Manufacturing has developed robots that are designed to assist their employees. Robots, in the manufacturing industry, is considered to have the same “capabilities and limitations that Siemens’s reasoner AI considers when making assignments, such as drilling a piece of wood or using screws to attach the legs of a stool.” (Captain, p.7).
Another thing considering the implementation of smart robots in future workplaces how replacing all the human workers would affect the economy. Obviously, if you were to replace all of the workers with AI controlled machines would not cost anything, but the long term effect is that since there is no jobs, people could not exchange money potentially harming the business. To make the market more accessible, there would perhaps be a restriction to how many AI controlled worker can be hired. Communication will also be an issue between human workers and those that are controlled by program. While it would be easy for machines to communicate with each other, the issue arises when the human needs to command the machine. Voice and language recognition is more prominent nowadays. In the future, I think this technology will be perfected and communication between robots and humans should not be that much of a problem. If you can get the robot the translate, then it may include workers that are foreign and cannot speak the same language very comfortably. SAS states in one of their articles is that communication is one of the strengths of owning a AI controlled worker. In that article they even mention age-old traditions mixed in with more advanced technology seen today regarding milk delivery services.
Being aware of the potential dangers of hiring more AI controlled workers is the main proprietor for keeping the workforce stable for humans. The main fear regarding AI in the workplace is that these machines would completely take over and no jobs would exist anymore. That type of thinking is a tad pessimistic and if everyone can recognize this as a potential issue that is prevalent in the future. Then people that are really concerned would go to very intricate measures to ensure that this type of problem would not be a possible outcome. I have a more positive prediction for the type of work environments being seen in the future.
Work Cited:
Captain, Sean. “This AI Factory Boss Tells Robots And Humans How To Work Together.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 7 Aug. 2017, www.fastcompany.com/3067414/robo-foremen-could-direct-human-and-robot-factory-workers-alike.
“How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Workplace.” BBC News, BBC, www.bbc.com/storyworks/specials/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-the-workplace/.
History.com Staff. “Industrial Revolution.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution
It is impossible to clearly see what the future is going to be like, yet I think we should consider that in terms of work that there is more then just AI and smart machines that will be doing everything. What I'm mainly trying to point out is that there is people that think technology can a be a positive work influence rather than just take over their jobs. AI and smart machines are tools, we should be able to use them as such to create work. We already see some companies integrate this theme into their work space such as UberManufacturing and more famous technology companies. If everyone believes in the concept of working with AI instead of AI working for us, then the path towards the future should be a very plausible outcome. Co-bots that were built by a company known as Rethink Robotics are solely designed to assist with a task. For very small skill and uninteresting, repetitive jobs that no human actually wants to do, I think those are the ones that are safe enough to replace AI. Other then that, if work towards this idea, then the constant fear of having a robot taking over your job will literally be a thing of the past.