FOLLOW US

The future is now. Gone are the days where robots are only for sci-fi movies and books. Now it’s not uncommon to travel abroad and see robots serving restaurant goers in Japan and even Europe. In fact the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) reports that the average worker in Slovakia faces a 62 percent chance that their job will automated in the future.

In a report published this November, the EBRD says the United States faces a similar future. The study says 50 percent of all jobs in the USA face a “high risk” of being automated in the “foreseeable future”.

Although at first site this may seem like a bad thing, the EBRD says that’s not the case. Robots and automated systems still need people to create, update, and fix them. The EBRD believes new technology gives way for more work to be done in other industries.

“While technological change inevitably gives rise to anxieties, history suggests that although some jobs will be destroyed, others will be created. Indeed, such innovations can help

to shift labour from sectors with low levels of productivity (such as agriculture) to higher-productivity sectors (primarily manufacturing and services).”

Here in the United States there is a company whose sole goal is to rent robots to companies to use as workers. The company, York Exponential, is based in Pennsylvania. Their main goal to have humans and robots work together.

Coming into the fourth into the fourth industrial revolution, John Mcelligot, CEO of York Exponential writes, “the same way we were forced to rethink society in response to the first Industrial Revolution, we’ll have to do much the same this time around. Except this time it’s going to happen a heck of a lot faster.”

So, it may time to embrace the fact that robots are coming. And if you’re nervous about the future, maybe try to embrace it instead of running from it.