Taxi drivers
Discuss About The Artificial Intelligence And Robotics On Human Workforce.
Technology innovation and its advancements have played a crucial role in the success of the survival of humankind since the early ages. For example, the discovery of fire changed the role of humankind extensively where they had now the ability to exercise control over their living environment, providing a basis for social evolution ( DeCanio 2016). Today we can look back to our history and identify the greatest achievements made by man for the purpose of development and survival are all linked to psychology (Cooley 2017).
However, due to the constant success related to the advancement of our societies, there is a developing storm that is coming since technological change, particularly the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and new generation robotics, are said to represent a “third wave” of economic development that will displace current jobs and current employment patterns and will fundamentally impact upon the very fabric of society itself.
The main element or characteristic of our society revolves around a business cycle where individuals are expected to work for money which in turn will be used to acquire items that will be used to for a better life. In simple terms, employment opportunities are vital to the backbone of our societies. Unfortunately, the constant increasing roles of technology, especially through the incorporation of robotics and artificial intelligence in business, has quickly undermined the human workforce and it’s going deeper to the extent of rendering their skills and knowledge obsolete. It’s agreeable that the human workforce is prone to errors and limited work output and time which is easily eradicated by technology.
A good example is Amazon Inc. wherein 2017 it created many opportunities, well it hired over 75000 robots. This is an alarming rate at which the human workforce is slowly being eradicated and fellow big firms are moving in that direction. economics, firms like Amazon would justifiably argue that it would be more efficient for Amazon and many firms to go into that direction since it minimizes cost and expenses that would have been used in catering for the human workforce such salaries, medical and insurance covers (Holden 2017). Nevertheless, the human workforce is still needed in programming these robots as well as maintaining and fixing them altogether. Even the most powerful AI machine is still based on algorithms, but with the constant increase in automation in several crucial stages of controlling and maintaining these robots, in the next 30-50 years, things will be different. During this time Technology would have reached a singularity point where it would have the ability to self-program itself and design and manufacture robots needed to expand its physical computing infrastructure and its maintenance. The main question would what the role of humankind and our society, in general, would be in that brave new world. This paper will analyze three occupations that would be run by AI and robotics, namely taxi drivers, doctors and teachers.
Doctors
Taxi drivers have played the crucial role in the transportation industry both locally and globally they have been a common method of transportation for that past 40 years and have been increasing down the line significant due to the boom in industrialization causing a booming effect on population growth. Therefore an increase in population results to increase in demand for a means of transportation thus a simultaneous increase in the numbers of taxi drivers over the years .This is evident in Australia using the tables and figures below from the Australian taxi association (2011)
Figure 1: population of taxi drivers in 1996 census
The total population if taxi drivers in 1996 were 20,147 where 92% of the total population were the male driver. moreover,32% of the drivers represented the highest numbers of an gae bracted of 40-45 years
Figure 2: population of taxi drivers in 2006 census
There is a significant increase in number of taxi drivers to 24,505 which attributes to 22% increase translating to 2% per annum.Age bracket matured to 51 to 59 years of age which almost attributed to almost a thirdFigure 3: Number of taxi drivers in Australia.
In figure3 there is a significant increase of the number of taxi drivers by 8 % over the four years since 2004 to 2010 which is also largely influenced by the population growth and advancement of technology in Australia as shown in figure4
Figure 4: percentage growth in number of taxis and population in Australia 2005-2010
Technology has improved the business models of taxi businesses that has seen a significant increase in quality service. Thanks to the advancements and penetration of mobile phones, individuals are able to access services through various mobile apps such as uber and taxi app which has also increases to emergence of similar firms in the market. Traditionally to access taxi services what physically challenges and inefficiency in cost managing which has been eradicated by innovations in technology (Bosch et al 2017).
There is an increasing threat to taxi drivers due to the invention of self-driving cars that rely on artificial intelligence. however, thanks Elon musk with the success of his tesla model in 2015, which saw tremendous sales globally, is now becoming a reality that taxi firms will have to adapt to (Shiller 2017). Several firms have also emerged to produce the best AI for self-driving cars which further shows the reality could come even sooner. Although many individuals will be rendered unemployed, it’s evident that taxi firms who will incorporate this technology will have a successful run in the coming years where Robotics and AI become self-autonomous rendering human workforce obsolete. Therefore by 2060 there will be a major decline of taxi drivers due to AI and robotics due to the innovation and advancement of self-driving cars (Tussyadiah, Zach, and Wang 2017)
Teachers
Technology has vastly contributed to the advancement of health care which has reduced mortality rate, however its adaptation to the field will affects the medic job patterns by reducing employment opportunities for doctors. Almost 80% of what is known as their job description will be rendered obsolete by AI and robotics (Meltzer 2014). However, steps leading to this can slowly be placed together by demonstrating how the medical field has changed from being the science of medicine to the practice of medicine. This might be harsh but today diagnosis significantly depends on moderately educated patients who at sometimes may interpret information wrongly and it is upto to the doctor to identify symptoms and recall their lesson back in college to give a diagnosis. Commonly, in the event that you request that three specialists take a gander at a similar issue, you’ll get three distinct conclusions and three diverse treatment designs. Study shows that 25% of deaths globally are contributed due to misdiagnoses and poor teamwork and communication in the medical field. Technology is advancing and being incorporated to the medical field to eradicate such errors originating from the human touch (Wang 2018).
Australia has seen as significant increase in the number of doctors to cater for the increasing populations. A population census was conducted in 2011 shows that there are 70,200 nursing practitioners which is a tremendous increase form 2001 where they were 32,000. general practitioners rose from 15,900 in 2001 to 43,400 in 2011 . There were impressive contrasts in the age circulation of people specialists. While the general extent of female specialists has expanded in late decades, this extent decays with age. In 2011, female specialists dwarfed male specialists among the more were young, with 57% of specialists aged under 30 years being ladies. The extent of specialists who were ladies declined with age nonetheless, diminishing to only 14% by the age of 65 years.
Figure 5: number of gps, specialists and nurses 2001 and 2011
Figure 6: number of doctors by age and sex – 2011
Figure 7: number per 100,000 population by health occupation 2001 – 2011
The figures above show a constant increase in employment opportunities in the medical field constant due to an increasing population that is vital to the success and stability of an economy. However much of what doctors perform in their job description such as diagnoses, prescription, check-ups and testing can be done better through analytics sensors and active data collection through the adoption of AI and robotics (Goolsbee 2018). This is already in play in many hospitals but still require the assistance and guidance of specialist to confirm if the algorithms put in place are effective. robotic have even gone deeper into the surgery room where surgeons with the help of robotic and AI are able to perform crucial operations through advanced technology reducing surgery time by close to 50%. The role of AI and robotics is slowly increasing in the medical field to an extent that is not affecting the employment rats in this field, however, by 2030 the impact on the increase in the roles, will start to have an impact as it would be efficient to bank on precision and cost-cutting.By 2060 the human role in the medical field will be very minimal since technology would have reached a singularity point where it can manage to program and improve its computing infrastructure (Topol 2015). However, societies will benefit in the health sector as most diseases that are currently related to increased mortality rates will either have a cure or a vaccine improving the mortality rate in the brave new world.
A teacher has been the crucial backbone of successful societies through handing down of knowledge and information. Since the early ages teachers have had a respectable job description od molding future leaders of the society who will have acquired essentials skills in creating a better world. However their role also will be affected by AI and robotics in the future, currently, incorporation of technology is widely being used in improving teaching methods in schools and tertiary institutions (Kory et al 2017). The Internet has played a big role in rationalizing the teacher’s job descriptions as students are able to learn, research and takes the test online without the Physical presence of their teachers. This has led to Increased private schooling by many individuals who value privacy, moreover, robots have quickly gone into classes and occupied the role of the teacher in performing lectures to students. This era is known as automated teaching and will eradicate grouping of children yearly which in most cases undermined children who were slow learners (Stiebert and Eyssel 2016). This has already started in Singapore where students are able to interact one on with students but currently at a rudimentary stage than expected but the doomsday for the teacher will be in the next 20 years
Australia has seen an increase in the number of teachers is due to the increase in population leading to increasing in private and public institutions to cater for the population (Weldon, 2015)
Figure 8: Teachers in Australia by fulltime equivalent and headcount Australia 1999-2013
Teaching in Australia is constantly becoming a part time profession where women are dominating in this sector 27% primary teachers and 20 % secondary teachers. A breakdown of teachers working part-time by age (Figure 9) indicates higher extents of those matured 35-44 are working part time(around 40% of ladies), rising again from about age 55.19 Older instructors are staying in the workforce longer, with a high extent in low part time roles
Figure9: Proportion of teachers working part-time, by age and gender, Australia, 2013
Teaching roles will be modernly overrun by robotics and AI in the coming 10 years which will offer a smooth transition to automation. eLearning was the doorway to this automation as it was filled with numerous advantages over the traditional teaching methods. However, it will be expensive to incorporate technology in the next 20years depending on the global economic outlook at the time, eventually by 2060 more than 70% of schools will already be automated due to the rise in use of AI and robotic in the surrounding environment that it would be rendered obsolete to still use the traditional methods (Edwards,and Cheok,2018). Institutions that can’t afford such automation will either merge with other institutions or be acquired by the government or cooperation so as to meet the educations standards.
Conclusion
Human dependably holds solid trust that robots will help out them later on. It is irrefutable that robots will convey a lot of advantages to human, however yet robots can convey dangers to human also. Robotics and AI technology specialists and teachers have distinctive considerations in their psyches towards the eventual fate of robots, and the greater part of them had issued notices that robots, particularly employment sector will convey risk to human (Smith and Anderson 2014). The paper has discussed the various occupations that would be affected in the coming future which are teachers, doctors, and taxi drivers. These jobs now enjoy the fruits of technology incorporations as it has made their work easier and precise in handling matters especially related to finances. Several large firms have already taken the crucial step in eliminating the human work force in in order to achieve maximum revenue and profit margins (Floridi 2017). This means that they have eliminated incomes and expenses such as salaries. medical covers and insurance leading to increase productivity as robots can works nonstop with accuracy and precisions, a good example is Amazon where is has replaced most of its workforce with robots (Marin 2018). The paper has also analyzed the various occupational demographic in Australia and predicted they will be affected. It is evident in the paper, that the three occupations have been increasing in numbers simultaneously with the increase of the population to cater of the demand of theses services with a significant advancement in technology. However, the effects of replacement if these occupations with AI and robotic will start having a great impact from 2030 and by 2060 the human workforce will be completely obsolete (Frey and Osborne 2017). Young employees who will meet the wrath of technology unemployment should enhance their skills towards adopting the technological change so as not to render obsolete. This means that the should focus their skill towards AI and robotics as their advancements is not only rendering many occupations obsolete but creating more opportunities that would support its computing infrastructure and advancement at. Managers and leaders have an essential tsk ahead, they should incorporate training programs that will assist their employees in adapting to the changes in technology so that they may not only have the skills to counter the change but benefits and pass along the skills to other individuals (Jesuthasan 2017). Moreover, they should also sharpen their leadership skills and management skills that will be essential in reinventing their business and their employees towards adapting to the third wave of economic development which is the AI and robotics which has proved to be a force to reckon with. Business will definitely grow if a further incorporation of technology into business models is done, therefore managers have no choice but to follow suit with the business environmental change.
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