By Flora Lepage, Year 11
“Robots will take over the world.”
This is a claim that has been repeated over and over to emphasise the control that robots might soon have over our society. Many people fear that robots have already begun taking over and such statements have created a lot of tension around the topic of developing technology and AI. However, we must remember that each day, there are advances made in the world of technology that allow us to continue to strive forward in medicine, science and technology. Without these advances, our world would be stuck in the past, and because of technology, the future holds incredible and unpredictable discoveries that our society is yet to come across. Now, the real question is, are robots really taking over or is it simply an exaggeration?
It is true that automation and robots have played a large role in our society in the past sixty years, especially in the industrial workforce. Since the 1960s, machines, starting with the conveyor belt, have been implemented into factories and have now evolved into humanoid robots. These robots help companies become more efficient and strategic when it comes to production, but also practical tasks such as making monotonous decisions and moving materials around. Now, if we look at the statistics concerning the amount of jobs that have been lost to robots and artificial technology, it can easily be seen as alarming. For example, a report has shown that by 2025, 85 million jobs will have disappeared due to technological advances. When considering statistical findings, it can be very worrying for the future and current working generations as to what they might be facing in the coming years. However, in the same report, it was also found that by 2025, 97 million new jobs would be created due to the changing demand in skills. This means that in the same time frame, an immense number of jobs will be lost but an even larger number of jobs will be created. This shows that we have no way of knowing what these jobs will truly consist of, but it is sure that they will at least have to be human jobs and not beloging to robots (yet).
This topic is one that is constant debate in our society and is highly controversial, as some agree that it is important to allow and accept this change in order for our world to continue evolving, while others believe that it is simply the beginning of the end. These people believe that robots and artificial intelligence taking over jobs is simply the first step, that robots will then take over all possible jobs and obtain positions of power until they are controlling humanity. Realistically speaking, this is highly unlikely as robots will always be the product of humans, meaning that robots will not be performing absolutely all jobs. If one were to look at all of the ‘plot holes’ in the “robots taking over the world” scenario, there are so many details where humans are needed that it refutes the entire argument.
People tend to forget that our world is constantly changing and that we cannot keep the same jobs or habits that have existed for hundreds of years, whilst also trying to continue to develop our society for the better. Living in the 21st century, discoveries are at their peak and we must learn to accustom ourselves to these changes without jumping to unlikely, and overly stressful conclusions. Some things need to be left in the past in order to continue into the future.
