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. |