homehome Home chatchat Notifications


When robots are everywhere, what will humans be good for?

This question was prompted to Ray Kurzweil - well known futurologist, pioneer of the Singularity Movement and Director of Engineering at Google - by a member of the audience during a Q&A session at an Executive Program hosted at Singularity University last October. You might not give it much thought now, but the truth is half of all American jobs could be replaced by robots in just a couple of decades. If you're a teller, supermarket cashier, call center operator or even a famer, you'll likely lose your job in the coming decades. So, what's to do then? Should we all rally and ban robots? It's no easy topic, but at the same time it's important, I think, not to panic. We need to remember that this isn't the first time something like this happened. It's the old human vs automation problem. How many millions of jobs were lost to mass production in the late XIXth century? How many more once computers started permeating society? At the same time, new jobs were made. Just look at where the information industry is today. The major challenge is not if new jobs can be made. This isn't really problem. The real challenge is to make these available at the right pace and make sure people have the necessary resources to repurpose their skill set. I'll leave you to Ray.

Tibi Puiu
June 29, 2015 @ 11:02 am

share Share

This question was prompted to Ray Kurzweil – well known futurologist, pioneer of the Singularity movement and Director of Engineering at Google – by a member of the audience during a Q&A session at an Executive Program hosted at Singularity University last October. You might not give it much thought now, but the truth is half of all American jobs could be replaced by robots in just a couple of decades. If you’re a teller, supermarket cashier, call center operator or even a famer, you’ll likely lose your job in the coming decades. So, what’s to do then? Should we all rally and ban robots? It’s no easy topic, but at the same time it’s important, I think, not to panic. We need to remember that this isn’t the first time something like this happened. It’s the old human vs automation problem. How many millions of jobs were lost to mass production in the late XIXth century? How many more once computers started permeating society? At the same time, new jobs were made. Just look at where the information industry is today. The major challenge is not if new jobs can be made. This isn’t really a problem. The real challenge is to make these available at the right pace and make sure people have the necessary resources to repurpose their skill set. I’ll leave you to Ray.

share Share

AI thought X-rays are connected to eating refried beans or drinking beer

Instead of finding true medical insights, these algorithms sometimes rely on irrelevant factors — leading to misleading results.

AI is scheming to stay online — and then lying to humans

An alarming third party report almost looks like a prequel to Terminator.

The David Mayer case: ChatGPT refuses to say some names. We have an idea why

Who are David Mayer and Brian Hood?

How CCTV Cameras and AI Can Prevent Floods in Cities

Researchers have developed an AI system using CCTV cameras to monitor culverts, potentially reducing urban flooding by detecting blockages in real-time.

Elon Musk’s social media posts have had a ‘sudden boost’ since July, new research reveals

Is the former Twitter platform now just used as a megaphone?

The world's first wooden satellite was launched into space

The satellite is made from magnolia wood, which was historically used for samurai sheaths.

Fast fashion company replaces models with AI and brags about it

The clothes they are "wearing" are real. But everything else is very, very fake.

AI could diagnose heart disease in dogs before it's too late

Heart murmurs often go undiagnosed in dogs. This new tool could help.

Researchers encode data in DNA hundreds of times faster than before — with panda pics

Two images were stored in and retrieved from DNA sequences faster than ever before. This could be a game-changer for our data storage.

The unlikely story of how a pastry AI came to be used to detect cancer

The journey of this particular AI was as unexpected as it gets.