By Dylan Ng Terntzer, CEO and Co-Founder of Lionsbot
Robots and humans have always had a complicated relationship. Engineers develop industrial robots to create safer, easier and more efficient work environments. At the same time, robotic household helpers make the lives of millions more convenient.
But robots do still instil fear. We remain afraid that they will one day surpass us and take over our jobs. Robots overthrowing humans is also a familiar trope in popular culture, with numerous movies made on the subject including “Terminator,” “The Matrix” and “I, Robot.”
While our mistrust of machines remains, it has not deterred the booming field of robotics. The intelligence level of robots has become so advanced that they are increasingly leaving the labs and factories in which they were created. They are now deployed in public spaces, helping humans with every aspect of their lives, from space exploration to surgery.
Robots have entered the mainstream
According to the International Federation of Robotics, the average robot density in the manufacturing industry hit a new global record of 113 units per 10,000 employees this year. The majority of the world’s most automated countries can be found in Asia, with Singapore taking the lead, followed by South Korea and Japan. Germany and Sweden complete the top five on the list. Singapore has the highest robot density in terms of deployment with 918 units per 10,000 employees according to figures from 2019. Most of these are industrial robots, which are used in the electronics industry for the manufacturing of semiconductors and computer peripherals.
But, as Covid-19 wages on, robots have also gained visibility outside of the manufacturing industry. We now see them at hospitals, airports, shopping centres and supermarkets, supporting us in day-to-day tasks including cleaning, law enforcement and customer service. As an example, an autonomous robot named ‘Xavier’ has been deployed in Singapore to stamp out undesirable social behaviour such as smoking in prohibited areas and illegal bicycle parking. As the world’s most automated country, Singapore has also deployed other robots such as ‘Matar’ and ‘O-R3’ to help with the enforcement of safe distancing measures. Cleaning robots are also being deployed at train stations, universities and museums, and robots that take orders and deliver food are not an uncommon sight in restaurants across the Republic.
A dystopian future?
The idea that robots are everywhere watching our every move may conjure up images of a dystopian future like the movies, but the reality is far from that.
While robots have become smarter and more sophisticated, the state of artificial intelligence technology today is still far from human intelligence. To assuage our fears of a machine-led uprising, we need to take into account the role of human oversight and decision making in the robot creation process. It is important to remind ourselves that robots are the products of human designers, coders, engineers and technicians, with safety measures in place throughout every stage of their design.
So, the crucial question in this discussion is not whether robots will one day render us obsolete, but instead “what will we choose to do?” Technology has been perceived to be a largely neutral concept throughout history, with its value derived from its applications. There is little doubt that we will continue to develop robots with improved capabilities, but at the heart of it, stakeholders including regulators, smart robotics companies and end-users, will need to work collaboratively to ensure that the technology we develop is aligned with our values.
Another reason behind our fear of robots is that we believe they will eventually take over our jobs. While many are understandably concerned about job losses resulting from automation, lessons from the past have shown that technology does rarely remove jobs but merely rearranges them, giving rise to new industries.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2020, 85 million jobs could be displaced by machines by 2025. However, in turn, 97 million new roles may emerge. To understand this better, technological innovations from our history can offer us some great insights. From the printing press to the development of cars and washing machines, the mobile phone and the internet, we’ve come a long way as emerging technologies have sprung up over centuries, transforming our lives drastically.
We’re likely to see the same paradigm shift with robots, with new jobs emerging that make our lives easier through increasing efficiency and lowering costs. Be it a new job created as a robotics programmer, or a human taking on more intricate tasks that robots cannot perform, menial and time-consuming jobs can be given to robots, freeing us to perform higher value tasks. In the future, you are more likely to be working alongside a robot than to have one replace you.
Introducing social robots
While humans can develop robots that adapt to our behaviour and essentially get along with us, an ongoing challenge remains on how to get humans to get along with the machines.
A fairly recent development in the field of robotics is social robotics. The new generation of robots, termed social robots, are specifically designed to interact and communicate with humans by following social behaviours and rules attached to its role. An effective social robot will thus need to interpret a human’s actions and respond appropriately.
Unlike industrial robots, social robots are designed to be deployed in collaborative workspaces to work alongside humans with the intention of making our lives more convenient and comfortable. They could perform tasks as simple as passing tools to a worker, to complex expressive communication and collaboration, such as in assistive healthcare. Such robots are often used in more personal settings like private residences, hospitals, nursing homes, and education facilities.
Research has shown that despite one’s initial reluctance to interact with a social robot, exposure to one may decrease uncertainty and increase willingness to interact with the robot. If people have an interaction with a social robot that is seen as playful (as opposed to being task-focused), they may be more likely to engage with the robot in the future.
The deployment of social robots in everyday spaces could alleviate our fears of machines, especially if these robots are perceived to be nonthreatening. In some settings, including children’s education and eldercare, personable and interactive robots have been proven to be effective in helping build emotional connections and improve well-being.
As consequential as such technologies have been, social robots do not satisfy the need for genuine human connection and interaction, even though they are programmed to simulate emotions and understand empathy. It is important to note that fundamental aspects of human nature, including our ability to love, build relationships and cooperate with each other, remain consistent throughout the world, regardless of a society’s level of technology adoption.
How humans and robots can coexist
The future of work will most likely be one where man and machines work hand in hand. Robots will help relieve tired nurses and cleaners, do basic cleaning and deliveries, and maintain production lines for manufacturing companies. While artificial intelligence and social robotics will fundamentally change how work gets done and who does it, the technology’s larger impact will be in complementing and augmenting mankind’s capabilities instead of replacing them.
The topic of outsourcing work from humans to machines is not new – it's a narrative that’s been around since the industrial revolution. For us to take full advantage of this collaboration and the benefits it can bring, companies will need to understand how humans can most effectively make use of machines, and in turn, how machines can enhance what we do best.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.