A report from last year revealed that by an estimation, half of Japan was expected to be run by robots by 2035. Now 2035 is still quite a long way to go, but in the meantime it seems that in the more immediate future, our jobs could be in jeopardy. According to a report from the World Economic Forum (via Bloomberg), it has been suggested that as many as 5 million jobs could be overtaken by robots by as early as 2020.This is based on a survey they took in 15 different countries, such as China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the UK, and the US. Right now there are a ton of jobs that a robot could easily do, although this is mostly in industries where a lot of heavy lifting is required, or where speed and efficiency are important, like at a factory’s assembly line.
According to WEF founder Klaus Schwab and board member Richard Samans, “To prevent a worst-case scenario — technological change accompanied by talent shortages, mass unemployment and growing inequality — reskilling and upskilling of today’s workers will be critical. It is simply not possible to weather the current technological revolution by waiting for the next generation’s workforce to become better prepared.”
That being said, while some are worried about robots replacing us in the workplace, there are others such as Elon Musk who are worried about AI potentially taking over and becoming “evil”, resulting in a Terminator-like future.
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