2/3: Smart Machines against all odds at work.

An insight on AI and employment

Artificial intelligence has a lot to bring to society, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks in several industrial fields. For example, Rethink Robotics builds semi-automated robots for production chains. Jobs on production chains tend to be repetitive and boring. They are disappearing in developed countries, and many production chains are simply abandoned or moved to lower-paying countries.

These production chains could get a second chance with Rethink Robotics: their robots are relatively cheap and can work more and for longer on menial tasks, which would be beneficial to any company. But this helps people too, as small, local production chains could be reopened and create new robot supervision jobs. The robots would take care of the repetitive tasks, while the people would be in charge of the more stimulating and less mind-numbing task of monitoring and operating them. This approach also applies to call centers, where a supervisor could monitor several robots to make sure they're operating properly.

As you can see, mankind is central to this view. Mankind controls these AIs. This path is realistic as long as mankind remains in control of what happens. Moreover, these AIs have to be simple to use and to understand by a workforce without prior technical or computer knowledge. We will get back to the point of people at the centre of AI a bit later.

Autor: Mickaël Camus (Ph.D)