So-called “bots” backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) already vacuum floors and perform factory assembly-line tasks that not long ago were performed solely by human workers. Now it seems that even a popular World War II-era icon, Rosie the Riveter, might be replaced by a robot if she were still around.
Indeed, one hotel in Japan now boasts an AI-powered front desk in addition to a building-wide cleaning staff of bots. A recent Pew report that canvassed nearly 2,000 scientists, engineers and analysts on the future of jobs revealed that nearly half the respondents foresee a future where robotic and digital agents displace significant numbers of workers – both blue and white collar.
It seems that taxi, and even recreational, drivers may be the first to go the way of the dinosaurs: A number of leading auto makers plan to offer some type of driverless vehicle as soon as 2020. The CEO of Uber, which has already reinvented on-demand taxi service, predicts all his cars may one day be driverless as well. Some traditional white-collar jobs, such as medical secretaries, paralegals, bookkeepers – even social-media managers, may be next in line.
Traditional solutions continue to be the clarion call to stay one step ahead of the trend:
- Reform our nation’s education system
- Sharpen our distinctly human skills like creativity, ingenuity and problem-solving
Will those be enough to keep robots in their place? Not according to the author of the LinkedIn post. He advocates an economic solution that would seem to take a page out of the playbook of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: "living income." It’s not a new idea, and has been floated in the past by the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Richard Nixon.