Entry source 1:AI and Robots in the Future. (Updated and Revised).

Updated: 10/26/22

1: Bibliographic entry

Captain, Sean “When will robots take our jobs?”, Fast Company, 2022, https://www.fastcompany.com/90742061/when-will-robots-take-our-jobs

2: Summary and representative quotes

When we talk about robots we like to focus on the more simple and not “fully developed” robots. The robots in the talk are for example the Roomba cleaning robots, Amazon’s Astro, and Sony’s Aibo dog robot. But what happens when robots are designed to be made robust and do tasks that are risky and otherwise better than humans? Well, writer Sean Captain goes into detail about this by stating.” Robots always start with the most mundane tasks. But as technology evolves, even roles that require a fair amount of human dexterity and judgment are falling under that definition”. Some jobs, for example, are cashiers, they soon could lose their jobs, we already have self-checkouts in place, and they became more popular due to the COVID pandemic we are still currently facing. Robots don’t have one specific design they can be anything that has any sort of computer intelligence.  Captain, Sean writer of “When will robots take our jobs?” states another example of a very important job robots are good enough to have, that being farmer. Captain, Sean writes “In agriculture, robots are not only plowing fields but can now recognize weeds and zap them with lasers.” Making jobs for farmers easier with the assistance of robots is not an issue.  

Then why is this important? You may ask, robots and more specifically their AI will learn to adapt to tasks. Then robot companies will make a robot designed to do that one specific task and will later slowly leave farmers without a job. Another issue with robots is the fact they are easy to replace if they get damaged. You can’t obviously do that with humans. The only thing holding robots back from being mass-produced is their massive cost. But this is not stopping “economic, demographic, and cultural forces to push demand for labor-saving robotics at the same time that burgeoning AI technology is making radically smarter machines possible.” Captain writes. In addition, we can expect this to happen within the next few years, maybe even decades, but this does not mean we should ignore it. When the time comes when robots do take over our jobs, we have to ask ourselves, “why did we let it happen?” and not do something to prevent it or at least try to live alongside robots. As a final note to what I mentioned Captain also writes “The 5, 10, or more years it takes for robots to catch up in both capability and numbers offer time for the current and next generation of workers to learn more advanced skills beyond what machines can do” And I agree, robots have to play catch up to us and we have to take advantage of this and learn new skills that will benefit us in the future. 

3: Reflection and rhetorical analysis

After reading “When will robots take our jobs?” I noticed that most of the jobs that are being targeted are redundant and time-consuming jobs. One of the examples given was titled “Robo truckers” and they mention that the downside of the job is where automation will shine. “Robots always start with the most mundane tasks… Several well-funded companies, including Aurora, Plus, TuSimple, and Google sister company Waymo, are testing automated driving systems.” While I do agree with his statements, he did forget about the main company that I have mentioned, which is Tesla, which is developing a Tesla Semi Truck and will without a doubt have a self-driving mode just like their cars. But this sounds too good to be true. In order to use Tesla’s self-driving mode, you need to keep your hands on the wheel and in doing so, you still need to have a person driving. The main importance for this is because it will reduce the chances of getting into an accident. But the best news of all is it still leaves workers with a job, and for safety reasons, there will not be fully self-driven cars and trucks on the road anytime soon.

 
When reading this article, I also noticed the use of Ethos and Logos in their way of getting the reader to get a deeper understanding of AI and robots. Using the information and research about AI we see how intelligent it is getting, humans will not be able to compete. But as for right now we for sure and learn and adapt to new skills before robots and AI arrive, making it so robots have to play catch up to us. Ethos comes with the fact that robots are going to become a much more common thing in the future. For example, Amazon has its Astro house robot, and Roomba is a cleaning robot. The main purpose is to be able to gather data in order to improve AI and machine learning to be able to implement it in other products that may be in production for the future. In addition, robots and AI also have a split audience. We have people who are tech savvy and companies who can benefit with robots that can help speed up production in the factory for faster production. Then there is the side of people who would much rather not have robots and do their jobs themselves physically than have a no live robot do it for them. 

4: Quotables

For a quotable is fully agree with ” Robots always start with the most mundane tasks. But as technology evolves, even roles that require a fair amount of human dexterity and judgment are falling under that definition.” Captain, Sean “When will robots take our jobs?” The main reason I agree with this is that robots are something that takes a huge time to develop, a company that goes by the name of Boston Dynamics has been developing robots for nearly 30 years. Only recently they have grown in population due to a robot dog they made called Spot. Spot has been used in construction work where it might be too risky or dangerous for humans to go underground.

OLD/ misinterpreted assignment work

1: Bibliographic entry

Captain, Sean “When will robots take our jobs?”, Fast Company, 2022, https://www.fastcompany.com/90742061/when-will-robots-take-our-jobs

Afshar, Vala @ValaAfshar “The robot wakes up and takes a deep breath – imagine this technology in 10 years” Twitter, Oct 15, 2022, https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/1581179800869228545

“Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” YouTube, uploaded by SomeOrdinaryGamers, Oct 2, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTTKBNLuPqQ

Saviom “12 jobs that robots (AI) will replace in the future”, Oct 5, 2021

2: Summary and representative quotes

• When we talk about robots we like to focus on the more simple and not “fully developed” robots. The robots in the talk are Roomba cleaning robots, Amazon’s Astro, and Sony’s Aibo dog robot. But what happens when robots are designed to be made robust and do tasks that are risky and otherwise better than humans? Well, writer Sean Captain goes into detail about this by stating. ” Robots always start with the most mundane tasks. But as technology evolves, even roles that require a fair amount of human dexterity and judgment are falling under that definition.” Captain, Sean “When will robots take our jobs?” Robots are easy to replace if they get damaged the only thing holding robots back from being mass-produced is cost.
• While doing my research I came across a video on Twitter of a robot “waking up” and the first thing I noticed is how human the face looked like. The expression that the robot shows would easily confuse someone if the robot was really “feeling something” The description of the video was titled “robot wakes up and takes a deep breath” Of course, they are programmed to make that expression and move their face in that way, but this also brings up another question on why we as humans go the length of making human-like features on robots look so uncanny to us.
• Since this topic is focused on robots taking over our jobs in the future we have to ask ourselves which jobs? And that question is hard to fully answer because they range from unskilled labor to jobs that are considered easy such as receptionist and librarian, to human-assisted robots such as da Vinci Surgical System. An article from Saviom states that “industry experts such as Fortune have stated that “robots will replace 40% of jobs in the next 15 years”. Saviom “12 jobs that robots (AI) will replace in the future” Robots have no limit to when how helpful they are going to be.
• When we see robots doing simple tasks such as lifting objects and struggling to walk around we don’t pay much attention to them. But when robots are more durable, smarter, and stronger it will then become something we would worry about then. Tech Youtuber and entertainer states “When this robot does get more advanced and the mass production gets more cheaper… it is going to be there to kick people out of jobs or force them to do something else” “Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” YouTube, uploaded by SomeOrdinaryGamers. To this I agree, I think when mass production begins we will have to deal with either adapting to robots or allowing them to take over jobs.

3: Reflection and rhetorical analysis

• After reading “When will robots take our jobs?” I noticed that most of the jobs that are being targeted are redundant and time-consuming jobs. One of the examples given was titled “Robo truckers” and they mention that the downside of the job is where automation will shine. “Robots always start with the most mundane tasks… Several well-funded companies, including Aurora, Plus, TuSimple, and Google sister company Waymo, are testing automated driving systems. ” When reading this I agree with his statements but he did forget about the main company that I have mentioned which is Tesla which is developing a Tesla Semi Truck and will without a doubt have a self-driving mode just like their cars.
  
  When reading this article I also notice the use of Ethos and Logos in his way of getting us the reader to get a deeper understanding of AI and robots. Using the information and research about AI we see how intelligent it is getting, humans will not be able to compete. Ethos comes with the fact that robots are going to become a much more common thing. For example, Amazon has its Astro house robot, and Roomba is a cleaning robot. The main purpose is to be able to gather data in order to improve AI and machine learning to be able to implement it in other products that may come in the future.
  
• While I was doing my research I like to browse Twitter and I came across this video titled “robot wakes up and takes a deep breath” The video shows an uncanny similarity to humans. And it got me thinking about how we might refer to robots in the future. Would we relate to them? Could we relate with them? Would we refer to them as better than us making them a higher priority and taking our jobs?
  
  Although the use of pathos and logos in this video was unintentional it does show that robots are becoming more human-like and makes us wonder if we will in the future refer to robots as equals. Or a piece of machinery? Some in the comments mention that the robot was programmed to do that expression and others question the ability of robots in the next 25 years. May seem like a long time but, time flies fast in a field where improvements are done almost every day.
  
• In this video Youtuber, SomeOrdinaryGamers goes over the Tesla robot that was revealed about 2 weeks ago in video titled “Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” Some may read that and say that it’s an opinion. But it does not take someone who knows robots to look at the Tesla bot and other companies such as Boston Dynamics, Honda, and students at Purdue university and state that they have much better AI and smoother robot inputs compared to the Tesla Robot. The Honda in comparison uses more actuators and gyroscopic movement to make these smooth movements. Overall the Tesla bot needs more improvements because at the moment the Tesla bot is playing catch up.
  
  I found the YouTube video uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to get his point across. He mentions that robots are designed to be replaceable and humans are not. He also mentions that a yearly salary of $20,000 is more expensive than making a one-time payment of a robot such as the Tesla bot for the same price to do a far better job. And this is an issue because it will leave many without a job getting rid of unskilled labor. But of course, that will take time in order to reduce the prices of the robots and make mass production higher.

4: Quotables

For a quotable is fully agree with ” Robots always start with the most mundane tasks. But as technology evolves, even roles that require a fair amount of human dexterity and judgment are falling under that definition.” Captain, Sean “When will robots take our jobs?” The main reason I agree with this is that robots are something that takes a huge time to develop, a company that goes by the name of Boston Dynamics has been developing robots for nearly 30 years. Only recently they have grown in population due to a robot dog they made called Spot. Spot has been used in construction work where it might be too risky or dangerous for humans to go underground.