The Future of Your Job in the Age of AI
English —
Unit 38
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| 0s | Sombot Chan works at a warehouse |
| 2s | picking orders from miles of shelves, and |
| 5s | this is his coworker. I call him Wall-E. |
| 11s | It's a robot powered by artificial |
| 13s | intelligence, and he isn't alone. |
| 16s | Doctors are beginning to rely on AI for |
| 18s | diagnosing disease. Machines are taking |
| 21s | the wheel from truck drivers and chefs |
| 23s | are handing their ladles to robotic line |
| 26s | cooks. Doesn't matter whether you're |
| 28s | working in a factory or sitting at a |
| 30s | desk or working in the service sector. If |
| 32s | you're doing something that is |
| 33s | fundamentally routine and predictable, |
| 35s | that job is ultimately going to be |
| 37s | threatened by machine learning. Will |
| 39s | work ever be the same |
| 40s | or are we heading towards a jobless |
| 42s | future? |
| 44s | [Music] |
| 50s | So in here, this is where we assemble the |
| 53s | robots. |
| 53s | Here's your - your future job as a robot |
| 55s | builder. Melonee Wise is the CEO of Fetch |
| 60s | Robotics. Her team builds autonomous |
| 63s | robots that use sensors, cameras, and |
| 65s | mapping algorithms to navigate |
| 67s | warehouses. So instead of a picker |
| 71s | walking several hundreds of miles over |
| 74s | the course of a week, they would give the |
| 76s | goods to the robot and the robot does |
| 78s | all that transportation. They save me |
| 81s | about a couple hours in the day, make my |
| 83s | job a little easier. At RK Logistics, which |
| 86s | supplies high-tech companies with |
| 88s | semiconductor, parts Fetch Robots have |
| 91s | become part of the workforce. |
| 93s | It wasn't about trying to replace people. |
| 95s | It was about trying to use the people |
| 96s | that we have, the employees that we have, |
| 97s | for the tasks that they are good at and |
| 100s | are interesting and that they want to be |
| 101s | doing. We've not laid off one person |
| 104s | because of robots and in fact, because |
| 106s | it's made us even more competitive, we've |
| 108s | actually only been hiring. Even so, |
| 111s | mounting evidence suggests that the risk |
| 113s | of robots replacing humans in the labor |
| 115s | force is real. According to one study, |
| 118s | about half our jobs are at high risk for |
| 121s | automation and it's not just manual |
| 124s | labor. |
| 124s | It's also white-collar things. It's |
| 126s | jobs done by journalists and |
| 128s | radiologists and all kinds of other, you |
| 131s | know, professional people that often have |
| 133s | lots of education. Historically, new |
| 135s | technology has increased productivity |
| 137s | and created new jobs. But this time could |
| 140s | be different. The machines are moving |
| 143s | into that cognitive space. They're |
| 145s | thinking. They're - they're learning. |
| 146s | They're adapting. They're doing things |
| 149s | that used to be uniquely human and |
| 150s | eventually we're going to see an |
| 152s | unprecedented disruption. That kind of |
| 155s | disruption is what concerns workers like |
| 157s | Robert James. Yes, it worries me because |
| 160s | automation causes people to lose jobs. |
| 163s | James is a forklift operator at the |
| 166s | Carrier Factory in Indianapolis where they |
| 168s | manufactur furnaces and air |
| 170s | conditioners. |
| 171s | He's also the vice president of their |
| 173s | local union. These jobs pay well, the |
| 175s | benefits are good, so you do need 'em. |
| 177s | This factory may be a good indicator of |
| 180s | where the manufacturing industry is |
| 182s | heading. Last February, Carrier's president |
| 186s | told employees at the Indianapolis |
| 188s | factory that their jobs were moving. |
| 190s | Tomorrow in Mexico. Then in November, the |
| 195s | company struck a deal with President-elect |
| 197s | Trump to keep around 700 jobs at |
| 200s | the factory. No, we're not leaving. But |
| 202s | those jobs still aren't safe. Here's what |
| 205s | United Technologies CEO, Greg Hayes, told |
| 207s | CNBC a few days later. We're going to |
| 210s | make a 16 million dollar investment in |
| 212s | that factory in Indianapolis to automate. |
| 214s | What that ultimately means is there |
| 216s | will be fewer jobs. I think that UTC will |
| 219s | attempt to automate every job that they |
| 221s | possibly can. We are in some cases seeing |
| 223s | factories come back, but of course what |
| 225s | happens is that the factories are then |
| 226s | almost entirely automated so the |
| 228s | production is here, they're - they're |
| 230s | building something here, but there are |
| 232s | very few jobs. So what can we do if |
| 235s | machines take our jobs? One potential |
| 238s | solution is something called a universal |
| 240s | basic income. A universal basic income is |
| 243s | the idea of income unconditionally given |
| 247s | to everyone regardless of how much work |
| 249s | they do, where they work, where they live. |
| 251s | It may sound unrealistic, but something |
| 254s | like it has been in place for decades in |
| 256s | Alaska where every resident gets an |
| 258s | average of $1,000 a year thanks to oil |
| 261s | dividends. What's radical about that is |
| 264s | it's money that Alaskans didn't work for |
| 267s | and they believe that they deserve. |
| 269s | Critics say that it will make people |
| 271s | lazy, but Foster disagrees. "Will people |
| 275s | work if they have economic security?" is a |
| 277s | very good question. |
| 278s | The science shows that people in fact |
| 280s | do work. But the other thing we have to |
| 282s | ask ourselves is what constitutes work? |
| 284s | There are people who have worked without |
| 287s | pay for a long time. I think of parents, I |
| 289s | think of caregivers, and so I think the |
| 291s | thing that basic economic security would |
| 294s | allow is the kinds of work that people |
| 296s | want to do and they're passionate about. |
| 298s | If this idea doesn't catch on, there may |
| 301s | be other ways to prepare like retraining |
| 304s | programs or |
| 305s | taxes on companies that replace workers |
| 307s | with robots. But one thing is clear: |
| 310s | there's no going back. The worst thing to |
| 314s | do is just to pretend that it's not |
| 316s | going to happen and sit there and do |
| 317s | nothing. Our challenge is to figure out a |
| 319s | way to adapt to this future where people |
| 322s | may be working less. |