Introduction
The problem of machines replacing human labor is vital not only in our perception of the present, where robots and artificial intelligence are gradually replacing humans. In fact, this situation can be traced in history for centuries. Many technologies are associated with the simplification of complex functions, and progress in this way has historically eliminated the need for one or another human labor. However, due to the digitalization and automation of many processes, the workforce began to be supplanted by computers even more intensively.
Technologies in the Times of the COVID-19
Additional worrisome prospects are observed precisely in the 2020s, when the pandemic that swept the world changed the rules of doing business and began to dictate its own rules. Due to the need for companies and industries to continue functioning, while people found themselves in a situation of needing to isolate themselves from each other, robots have replaced many workers. Automation of initially human work turned out to be not only safer based on the pandemic situation, but also proved to be more cost-effective. Many of the costs of complying with the isolation rules, the costs associated with the spread of the disease, can actually be offset by replacing the workforce with robots. Analysts predict robots could replace two million manufacturing workers by 2025 (Semuels). However, this data may be changed because the COVID-19 impact is hard to predict, understand, and analyze.
Robots Replacing Humans in Workplace
Robots are able to perform basic work at a high level due to a number of skills to be implemented as a part of their programs. As a rule, such work does not require specific social intelligence like emotional involvement or the manifestation of social and intellectual education (Partington). Artificial intelligence can be used to make automated calls, notifying the addressee or even providing automated assistance, and advice to a live interlocutor. Robots are gradually displacing the workforce in the textile and clothing industries, leaving a large number of the lower class in India out of work, unable to obtain other income. Automation is a rapidly evolving process in the service industry, as cashiers and waiters can potentially be supplanted by machines. The ongoing process of automation in the service sector has the potential to leave millions of people unemployed.
Robots and AI in Healthcare
The use of robots in medicine has a long history, since robots performed the simplest operations back in the 1990s. However, at the moment, artificial intelligence can be used not only for performing mechanical physical labor. The mechanisms turn out to be able to solve intellectual problems using the loaded database for decision making. Algorithms designed to analyze medical history and establish a diagnosis and treatment strategy are already being actively implemented in hospitals. At the moment, the automatic diagnostic process can demonstrate itself as more reasonable and qualified than the conclusions of another medical worker, simply by virtue of the ability to process more information. Thus, the professions, like those of diagnostic doctors or nurse coordinators, can be easily replaced by an analytical program.
Threats and Opportunities
Many benefits and threats are usually associated with the implementation of robots in everyday activities. At the moment, it is claimed that more than 1.5 million rudimentary work tasks have been replaced with automated process execution by robots (Casey and Nzau). The threat of robots crowding out machine labor implies not only the loss of jobs, but also the impoverishment of certain classes of the population of countries. Workers who have lost the ability to provide for their families require state social support. The state can support the new volunteers of unemployment by providing financial assistance. However, more valuable would be the opportunity for emergency professional retraining that allows them to adapt to the new workspace. Modern reality implies certain flexibility of human labor skills; however, not everyone, being tied to their work, may be able to adapt to the coming robotic revolution. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the professions market, which, on the contrary, becomes open with the filling of the working environment with robots.
New Spheres of Professional Skills
The loss of more unnecessary work positions does not necessarily mean that new jobs requiring new skills will not appear because of ongoing automation. Changes in manufacturing sectors mean the emergence of new professions that will be accordingly appreciated above the previous ones. Rethinking work strategies and implementing new production tactics developed and applied since the coronavirus era will also require new jobs. In general, the claim that robots generate more work than they eliminate seems to be right at this point. However, the work related to the maintenance of robotics and monitoring of machines still requires human control. The same applies to the maintenance and care of service systems in any area, from food to medical. Successful interaction between humans and robots will perhaps be even more appreciated. Also, the modern era, which is increasingly turning into its virtual analog, can offer new jobs in the field of technology, as well as in the development and use of cyber economics.
Conclusion
Employment opportunities of humans undergo multiple changes due to the implementation of robots in different spheres. It is hard to predict the impact of such interventions, but it is wrong to believe that these contributions are of a negative outcome only. It is fundamentally important that, in the foreseeable future, the state should spend as many resources as possible on the adaptation of vulnerable classes of the population to new technological conditions. In other words, people would get an opportunity to study new subjects and learn how to implement their technological knowledge in everyday practice. However, the impossibility of carrying out such programs would mean an impending economic catastrophe for an entire class of the population. Thus, government initiatives should provide a sufficiently suitable ground for training the unemployed in new skills, and this potential crisis can be overcome. New jobs will be added to provide a person with greater comfort since the work performed in a new, robotic world requires more mental than physical activity. In general, robots would increase employment opportunities from one perspective (more comfort and simplicity) but reduce some opportunities from another perspective (replacement of labor).
Works Cited
Casey, Marcus, and Sarah Nzau. “Robots Kill Jobs. But They Create Jobs, too.” Brookings, 2019, Web.
Partington, Richard. “Robots in Workplace ‘Could Create Double the Jobs They Destroy‘.” The Guardian, 2018, Web.
Semuels, Alina. “Millions of Americans Have Lost Jobs in the Pandemic.” Time, 2020, Web.