Robots are Coming for Dirty, Dangerous, and Dull Jobs

Introduction

In the following text, called Robots Are Coming for Dirty, Dangerous, and Dull Jobs
you will find out more about the artificial intelligence, computers and robots and their
impact on the future labour market. You will get an insight into the ways in which robots will
replace humans when it comes to work. You will learn about the advantages and
disadvantages of the use of robots in the world of work. When it comes to grammar, you
will come across the use of different tenses, including the modals. Enjoy the reading!

The debate over how robots could affect employment has been going on for more than a
century. Those who rage against the machine say robots will steal our jobs, make us their
slaves, and then kill us. Others believe robots are the key to ultimate freedom from work
that humans find dull or dangerous.

During the Robo Universe conference earlier this week, robotics companies strutted their
computer-brained friends around the Javits Center. Some robots could climb stairs,
others could pick up and place objects, while others could drive you around the
sidewalk without your exerting any effort. The majority of executives at the conference
explained how robots are here to rescue us from manual labour and will help to make our
companies leaner, more profitable, more consistent, and more competitive.

But will the robot revolution turn out to benefit humanity or the robot companies? Or will we
all lose and the robots conquer?

Slika 22.1. Robots

Copyright Link group

Robots enhance human work

Universal Robots, a Danish company founded in 2005, makes single-arm collaborative

robots that are used to do repetitive tasks in the automotive and manufacturing space for
such companies as BMW. UR has sold about 8,000 robots around the world.

The robots, lightweight and mobile, are used for a variety of jobs, including CNC
machining, injection moulding, and assembly-line tasks such as packaging eggs and sealing
car doors. But the applications are endless: One robot assists a neurosurgeon during
surgery, another UR bot films football matches in Europe, and another makes custom flip-
flops.

"Our robots do the dirty, dull, and dangerous tasks people don't want to do," Scott Mabie,
UR general manager, says.

Employees require minimal training to learn how to teach a robot a certain task and put it to
work, he says. The ease of adoption is important as employees--to avoid losing their jobs--
essentially have to learn how to operate the robot. In free-drive mode, an operator
manually moves the arm through a task and the movements are recorded and programmed
into the software.

Slika 22.2. Workforce

When asked if UR bots steal jobs from humans, Mabie doesn't hesitate: "No," he says.
"What they do is allow employees to enhance positions they are in."

When Scott Fetzer Electrical Group, a Nashville-based appliance-motor manufacturer owned

by Berkshire Hathaway, bought its first fleet of robots from UR, the employees were worried
about their jobs. But Rob Goldiez, general manager of Scott Fetzer, said the company saw a
20 percent increase in productivity after the robots were deployed, which has helped Fetzer
put more people to work.

Copyright Link group

"We're bringing back business we used to send to China," Goldiez says in a company video
about the robots.

Remove the rose-tinted glasses

But this is all a very rosy picture of the imminent robot-filled future. During the Industrial
Revolution, there was a point when people did lose their jobs en masse to machines.
Workers had to adapt to a new world, which they did--but it took time. That's where we
appear to be headed.

Many researchers say automation will replace humans at a faster clip than humans will be
able to create and train for new jobs. A bleak future isn't just an attention-grabbing
headline; it's a potential reality. According to an Oxford University study from 2013, about
47 percent of total U.S. employment is at risk of being replaced by computers. Machine
deep learning and mobile robotics of tasks could take over the work of everyone from
secretaries and truck drivers to construction workers and doctors.

Some economists blame computer-controlled equipment for the world's high unemployment
rates. Nineteenth-century British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted widespread
chronic "technological unemployment" due to the advances of technology.

Others say laborers are not the only ones susceptible to automation. Daniel Kahneman, who
won a Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics and wrote Thinking Fast and Slow,
believes robots will be not be pigeonholed in manual-labor jobs but will actually replace
CEOs.

This month, Kahneman spoke at Wharton's People Analytics Conference in Philadelphia

about how algorithms spliced with artificial intelligence and business judgment could replace
CEOs. "There is little or no evidence of cases in which expert judgment does better than
intelligently constructed formulas," Kahneman said.

Text adopted from http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/robots-replacing-dirty-dangerous-

jobs-is-good.html

Copyright Link group

Vocabulary

Nouns (imenice): Verbs (glagoli):

employment zaposlenje rage protiviti se, naljutiti se

stairs stepenice strut razmetati se
sidewalk trotoar exert vriti, naprezati se
majority veina rescue spasiti
executive direktor benefit profitirati
humanity oveanstvo conquer pobediti, osvojiti
headline naslovne strane novina assist pomoi
moulding oblikovanje, modelovanje enhance poboljati
neurosurgeon neuro-hirurg adapt adaptirati se, prilagoditi
equipment oprema replace zameniti
unemployment nezaposlenost pigeonhole klasifikovati, svrstati
advance napredak deploy zaposliti nekog
laborers radnici splice with splesti
artificial intelligence vetaka inteligencija
tasks zadaci
appliance-motor aparat motora
fleet flota, mornarica
construction workers radnici na gradilitu
labour naporan rad
flip-flops papue japanke
CEO izvrni direktor
assembly-line montana traka

Adjectives and adverbs Prepositions and conjunctions

(pridevi i prilozi): (predlozi i veznici):
-
collaborative zajedniko
ultimate ultimativni
leaner loijeg kvaliteta
consistent dosledan
lightweight lagan
mobile mobilan, pokretan
dull dosadan
manually runo
imminent neminovan, neizbean
en masse masovno, grupno
attention-grabbing senzacionalan
widespread rasprostranjen
chronic hronian
susceptible podloan
behavioral bihevioralni, ponaanje
artificial vetaki
bleak sumoran

Tabela 22.1.

Copyright Link group

Synonyms

Nouns (imenice): Verbs (glagoli):

employment a job, a post, work rage be angry, be furious

stairs a set of steps strut to show of
sidewalk pavement exert exercise
majority larger part/number rescue save
executive managing director benefit profit from, gain from
humanity the human race conquer beat, vanquish
headline news title assist help
moulding shaping enhance to improve
neurosurgeon brain surgeon adapt adjust
equipment appliances, apparatus replace change
unemployment the state of being advance pigeonhole deposit (a document) into a
progress pigeonhole
laborers workers deploy recruit
artificial intelligence computer systems splice with interweave, braid
task assignment
appliance-motor device
fleet naval vessels
construction workers people who work in
construction
labour hard work
flip-flops slippers
CEO Chief Executive Officer
assembly line machines in a factory by which
a succession of identical items is progressively
assembled
Adjectives and adverbs Prepositions and conjunctions
(pridevi i prilozi): (predlozi i veznici):

collaborative produced or conducted by two -

or more parties working together
ultimate eventual, final, concluding
leaner poor (comp. of poor) insufficient
consistent constant, regular
lightweight thin, light
mobile portable
assembly line
dull boring
manually done with hands
imminent coming, forthcoming
en masse in groups
attention-grabbing sensational
widespread extensive, global
chronic persistent, long-standing
susceptible open to, receptive to, vulnerable
to
behavioral deals with behaviour, demeanour
artificial synthetic, unreal, fake
bleak gloomy
unemployed without the job

Tabela 22.2.

Copyright Link group

Conclusion

To sum up, you have just read the text which certainly enriches your vocabulary.
You have had a chance to find out more about the artificial intelligence, computers
and robots and their impact on the labour market. The text also illustrates
advantages and disadvantages of the use of robots in the world of work. When it
comes to grammar, you have come across the use of different tenses, including the
use of modal verbs. Hope you have found this article interesting.

Napomena za testove napredovanja

Kako biste to bolje usvojili gradivo, uz ovu lekciju dostupni su testovi za vebu, koji se
odnose na razumevanje teksta i vokabulara iz ove nastavne jedinice.

Copyright Link group