Which jobs will robots take over from humans first?

in technology •  7 years ago 

if we work on the assumption that Robots are actually just technology set consisting of machine learning algorithms, which are run on computers specifically built to execute specific jobs, they can actually be trained to do human jobs

So what jobs are in the firing line first? I think some of it will be surprising.


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Doctors


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Computers are robots will make excellent doctors, and the good thing is that the world does not have enough of them. At the ridiculous rate which the world population is growing, actually estimated to be 8.5 Billion people around the year 2030. I have read that if everybody who wants to become doctors, actually became doctors, we will still not have enough doctors. So this is definitely not a bad thing.

What about writers?


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As we are all writers on the Steemit platform, we know how difficult it is to write. But when it comes to writing articles for newspapers, it is actually very possible to machine learning code, to teach computers to read data and match images etc.

Industrial workplaces

Robots are already replacing humans on specific industrial position. More specifically where industrial factories where the built vehicles.

Each additional robot in the US economy reduces employment by 5.6 workers, and every robot that is added to the workforce per 1,000 human workers causes wages to drop by as much as 0.25 to 0.5 percent. Such are the conclusions reached by MIT’s Daron Acemoglu and Boston University’s Pascual Restrepo, who published their findings at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Robots are replacing human workers at an alarming

Pharmacists


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This might be closer than we think as if this is planned correctly, it is actually very possible to do with the technology that exist today. All that is needed is a carefully planned store room where the medicine are distributed from.

Lawyers


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This is where the blockchain technology comes in backed with very specific smart contracts. A smart contract is nothing else than a workflow, with the potential of executing on specific rules. If we look at the Blokchain and crypto currencies, why can't we have a workflow, which paid out specifically on the rules provided. We might not replace all lawyers, but we can surely have less of them around :) Just joking, I have a lot of lawyer friends

The New York Times reported that Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, CA provided software that helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.

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There are a lot more jobs that are in danger first, just think about Rescue Robots, Store Clerks, Drivers, Astronauts and Soldiers only to mention a few

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Robot Jobs
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9 Jobs in danger of robots taking over

Happy Steeming!


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  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Great insights jacor and I absolutely agree although the list could easily be expanded with several more job titles. Everything that is rule based is highly likely to be taken over by machines within a fairly short time frame. Even driving can be analyzed (big data) and managed by rules. This is exactly what Tesla is doing by analyzing data from all the current cars on the streets. Today Tesla is very close to releasing autonomous cars that will replace drivers around the world.

I would like to comment further on the "Writers" section you mentioned in your fine article. We already do have machines writing readable pieces for online publications within the news and sports sections. The automation of writing jobs will only increase, but, it is only certain writing jobs that are of imminent "danger" of being replaced by machines.

All writing that can be based on data are ideal tasks for robots. Especially data based jobs that can be compared with other data sources to find correlations of interest seem interesting.

Creativity on the other hand is not very rule based thus making it difficult for machines to compete with real human beings. We have already seen robot written poems and such, but humans still have an edge in creative writing.

Actually I believe that good writers are fairly well positioned for the future of AI. Creative Steemians for an example are probably one of the last "professionals" to be replaced by robots.

Just my thougts :)

@ronni

This must be one of the most comprehensive and insightful comments I have ever received on the platform. Thank you very much for a great comment. You seem to be an expert on the topic.

Gave a talk on this subject a while ago. To me it makes more sense to approach the question from the opposite angle: Which human abilities and valuable traits will it be most difficult for an AI to adopt?
To me those were:

  • Curiosity (The AI works with defined problems, but do not come up with new ones to solve)
  • Creativity (The AI works with established methods, but does not invesnt new ones outside the model it is set to optimize)
  • Initiative (The AI will work on any task given, but will not take the initiative to start new ones without command)
  • Multidisciplinarity (The AI works excellent within one topic, but much of the value-added is from seeing the overlaps and synergies between different fields)
  • Empathy. New product and service development should be human centred. And be something a customer wants. An AI can deliver a solution to a known customer need, but can not understand new needs.
    tech talk.jpg
    image from my talk

Anyways, I guess I'll have to write my own post on the subject :P

Emotions play a huge part in human life and work.If you think about it "that feeling" drives people.Think about Steve jobs being thrown out of APPLE... robots

Haha I definitely don't see it being writers :D LOL. WHy would the robot type, when it can print straight from a printer.. :P

I think they printer will be the first. If printers get artificial intelligence, they will take over all writers :D

Publish an entire page within seconds..

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Robots will wipe out humans and take over all jobs in just a few years. The good news is that robots are also making amazing doctors, diagnosticians and surgeons, that will eliminate any loss of life because of human error.

Not sure if they gonna wipe us out, but do thoroughly agree that it might eliminate loss of life. Thanks for a great comment @hms818

I think robots and AI will ultimately free up our minds to be more creative, but only after a period of disruption. After the information age/economy boosts computing and manufacturing we will be forced to find new meaning for life, beyond survival and productivity. The individual mind can then be allowed to focus purely on creativity and sampling experiences.

This is a great comment . Thanks and agree with your points :)

It seems our society went from [He/She who has access to information, controls the ignorant], to [..who controls access to information, gains status over the ignorant], to [.....who controls data collection, gains productivity], to [...who owns data, owns the ignorant] , to where we are currently..... Individuals being able to own their data, drive their own productivity and choose to be powerless or not. The future, as I see it, will brighten once people control their data and can delegate productivity to AI and robots. Then we move into to that creativity era I spoke of. Peace and prosperity to you.

Security guard (especially malls and office spaces) and this one is already here.

All the ones that don't involve creativity i guess? But in the end if our robots become humans and have feelings we are pretty much useless.

Thanks for a great comment @mergesort. I wonder if they or shall I say it will be creative in the future :0

there will be, we are already creating AI that is supposed to be "creative". Quantum computer are going to bring that to whole new lvl.

Robots are surely going to change the world in the future. Who knows, maybe there won't be jobs left for people to do. Even robots will be created by other robots :D

Then we can all just blog @trendo :) Woudn't that be great. We have a new puppy in the hous. It will be lovely if ta robot can clean up after the puppy. I will just lave that :)

Haha that sounds fantastic :D

I'm a mannequin... and I always worked as a mannequin... but now I'm thinking about "human-jobs", like blogging, crypto-trading, dogsitter, etc. Wish me good luck ;-) Steemitri, the mannequin

@Steemitri, do you feel you are not receiving the same advantage of your more autonomous counterparts? We are a council of lawyers who may be able to help. Contact Duey, Cheatum and How. Helping the autonomy challenged to receive the rights they deserve for over 20 years.. call 1800-MyBotHurts today. :)

Yeah... I'm gonna call that office man!

:)

in my own view i don't foresee the robot taking over human emotions, they can imitate. and as well as writing they cant take over it

cool post upvoted bro have a great day

Hello @jacor, you have rightly pointed out in your post that many jobs, as we know then today, will be gone in the future. I have been in the IT Industry for close to 9 years now and I have seen it grow and change shape, right before my eyes. Robotics has already taken over many blue collared jobs. And now a huge percentage of engineering jobs from the IT Industry have also past their prime. Things like Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Bigdata Analytics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Chat-bits, Predictive Analysis and last but not the least **Blockchain tech ** are just a few to name..!!
Changing times call for change in the mindset of people. Keep upgrading your skills etc to remain relevant in these ever evolving times where not only we are competing with one another, but now with machines too... ✌️✌️ Peace..!!

ROBOT TAKE MOST POWERFULL JOBS

I dont think people understand how complex these bot can be. Some just notice the as accessories. kinda like a post with no up votes lol.

OMG
Then what does human need to do for living

We'll blog man :) Thanks for the comment @slowwalker

If robots replace the doctors, the healthcare costs will shoot up sharply rather than becoming affordable for everyone.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

We will soon see what we could not even imagine

pilots , marine also

Interesting and yet scary thoughts... but I think robots will initially replace supermarket staff, followed by automobile machinists... and soon taxi/bus drivers..

I think the first work would be the driving as the self drving cars have become a reality. They still use AI for that purpose, but may be robots can be used for the same in the near future. Apart from that, all manufacturing work will surely be done by robots in the near future as they will be more efficient and effective.
A big thumbs up for your work @jacor

"What work will robots take over from humans first?". Maybe now it's time for robots to do human work, though still in small numbers. But the thing I fear is when the robot can create a robot.

Positively saying, robots are actually great but on the contradict side it teaches humans to be dependent and lazy.

From the looks of it, they are giving the worlds oldest proffesion a run for the money as well.

Writers might be the one job machines can't take. They will be taking all your McDonalds and Walmart jobs soon!

@jacor what about defense? I think defense will be one of the major jobs that the robots will take.

Even though robots can be programmed to do whatever job, I dont think they will be able to replace humans as long as robots are unable to show genuine emotion. A big part of being a lawyer is indeed to have an extensive knowledge of the law but a big part of it is being creative and making a jury feel sympathy. Same as a writer or any service based worker. On the contrary, surgeons or mechanics have no need for these emotions at all and could very well be replaced soon.

I think the medical ones (especially doctors) are even closer than we think :O

We all know it's coming. Just a matter of time. A semi truck was tested in CO that drives itself. Does all the stuff a driver has to do - without the driver. Scary! I imagine that goes along with de-population. upvoted and following for more great info.

I have some insights into this, since I am currently working on such projects.There are many things thats not even main stream but might have huge impact. I am planning to write a blog on this.... Mostly on the tech stuff and what will be the limitation. Regardless, I can tell you one thing.We are years away from many of these due to shortage of COMPUTING POWER. You will be surprised why, but I will explain it in details

The very first jobs to be taken over would be any kind of mechanical job, anything that involves carrying out repetitive tasks. In fact that is becoming a reality now, especially in manufacturing now.

The last jobs would be those that require creativity and jobs that need something new to be done. Robots can be programmed for predefined tasks but for them to do some thing new - well that would require superhuman effort!

Very nice article!

The only one they wont take is the one that programs them, or have they also started doing that

They can take over my job any time, they must just keep on paying me. LOL

LOL:)))))

The diagnosis of putting robots on can be analyzed, this is understandable. But doctors are a little more than just robots. They can interact with a person, understand it. Or will robots soon be able to do this?

I see a day when interaction with the doctor will not be necessary. A robot will simply scan you identify the problem, and fix it. No bed side manner needed, no telling the doc your symptoms. The robot already knows. At least I hope that's the way it's going to be.

I've done a lot of jobs in my life mostly out of boredom and love of travel.
To name a few PC business, mechanic, oil rigs, ins salesman, carpenter, plumber, hod carrier. Out of all these jobs the only one that can support a decent living and offer job security is plumbing. I didn't become a plumber because of that, but now that I understand the trade I can say this, it's going to be a long time before a robot does service calls on existing buildings. I've been a plumber for around 2 decades for for this very reason. I'd much rather carry around a multi-tool and a zip drive than a truck full of tools, but being replaced by a robot is not for me.
What I would like to see is all fast food workers replaced. The only person they need is a mechanic. I can't do fast food in the big city anymore. You have no idea what's happening to your food before you get it.