Robots Compilation Dr. Thomas Lairson
Between 30 percent and 50 percent of today's jobs will be automated by machines over the next 20 to 30 years, so which jobs are the safest?
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- Foxconn’s Foxbot army close to hitting the Chinese market, on track to meet 30 per cent automation target
- READ MORE: China’s Alibaba, Foxconn invest US$236 million in SoftBank’s robotics business
- READ MORE: US$154 billion rise of the robots planned for Pearl River Delta manufacturing
- READ MORE: Building work starts on first all-robot manufacturing plant in China’s Dongguan
Between 30 percent and 50 percent of today's jobs will be automated by machines over the next 20 to 30 years, so which jobs are the safest?By Matthew Griffin Follow
CIO | Mar 16, 2016 7:05 AM PT Leadership and Management Careers Over the past year there has been much speculation and tens of thousands of column inches devoted to trying to determine just how many jobs and what type of jobs are going to be replaced by new generation technology. Today we’re used to, dare we say complacent towards Blue collar worker’s jobs being automated and as the joke goes the factory of the future might only need a Human and a dog to keep it running – a dog to make sure no one tampers with the machines and a Human to feed the dog. Fifty years from now however we might find that that job statistic was overly optimistic. Researchers who have been looking at the impact that technology will have on the workforce seem to agree that in the next twenty to thirty years between 30% and 50% of the global workforce will be at great risk and for every job that’s handed over to the Machines there will be at least two that are no longer advertised.
When people talk about the impact technology will have on the jobs market the debates are predicated on how it’s technology that will take our jobs. I want to point this out as a misnomer because it’s not technology that will come after your job it will be company executives guided by market forces and economics that decide that new age machines and systems can do your job better and cheaper than you and it’s they, not an AI that will instruct HR to E-Mail you your P45. This might seem like a quaint point to make but it’s important to remember that it’s todays and tomorrows executives who have the final say on whether or not they make a tier or a section of their workforce redundant. The social responsibility of this “Human in the Loop” is all too easily over looked and as a society we mustn’t forget that we have options and a duty of care to each other - just because we can make people redundant, sometimes ruining lives and families it doesn’t necessarily mean we should.
Technology is advancing now faster than it ever has before. At current rates, as advanced technologies are combined to create even more advanced technologies over the next 100 years we won’t see 100 years’ worth of technological progress we’ll see 20,000. Think back to the technologies and platforms we had available to us 500, 200, 100, 10 years ago and just 5 years ago and you’ll be able to see the acceleration for yourself. The consequence of all of this is that the length of time between each wave of industrial and societal disruption is getting progressively shorter and the upshot is that if technology doesn’t put your job at risk today then it’s likely it will tomorrow. The squeezed middle Today there are a collection of technologies that are stirring the debate. However, unlike the disruptions of yesteryear where technologies replaced simple repetitive Blue Collar job functions near the bottom of the Skills and Complexity Pyramid they’re now starting to replace White Collar knowledge workers near the top. The result is an increasingly nervy global workforce and for the first time ever a squeezed middle who are becoming increasingly worried about their lack of specialisms and skills. The technologies that will have the greatest impact and influence on the job markets can be divided into two groups. “Individual Emerging Technologies” such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision and hardware and software based Robots and “Aggregated Emerging Technologies” that combine different technologies together to create platforms that include Autonomous Vehicles, Avatars, Cloud, Connected Home, the Internet of Everything, Smarter Cities, Wearables and Telehealth. Some of the world’s best self learning Artificial and Cognitive computer systems are already replacing advisors, artists, commentators, consultants, doctors, investigators, journalists, musicians, paralegals, teachers, translators and even the data scientists who created the original Algorithmic Models. Machine Vision systems are replacing quality inspectors, security analysts and security guards. Hardware Robots have already replaced many of the Blue Collar factory and warehouse jobs and now they’re replacing bar staff, maintenance workers, porters, soldiers, waiters and surgeons while their new, modern day software only counterparts are replacing administrative staff, customer service clerks and FX traders. In the AET space Autonomous Vehicles – from cars and trucks to aircraft and half a million ton cargo ships are reducing the need for drivers, operating crews, pilots and even traffic wardens. Avatars are replacing actors, bank tellers, call centre agents, teachers and support staff. Cloud reduced the need for change managers, enterprise architects and operations staff while the Internet of Everything is reducing the need for engineers, facilities managers and maintenance workers. Smarter Cities will reduce the need for police, street cleaners and a myriad of other public servants while Wearables and Telehealth are both reducing the demand for secondary care workers, doctors and personal trainers. Top of Form
Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form The lists could go on and on. Today we’re sitting on the beach mouths agape watching the tidal wave raise worrying about our futures but while it looks like the balance of power is only ever going to shift into the machines favour there is hope from a number of directions. Safe harbous Technology is going to keep improving at an exponential rate so where do we Humans flee to for work - which jobs are going to be safe, or at least safer harbors for the next twenty years? Jobs that hard to specify and that require deep expertise in either one or ideally a mix of the following disciplines will be the hardest to automate: Dexterity, Emotional Intelligence, Negotiation, Originality, Perception, Persuasion and Social Intelligence. It’s going to be a cold cold world - full of wise cracking artistic Chiropractors… Urgh. Entrepreneurship on the rise If you’ve read that list and you’re down in the mouth then there’s still hope. Today it’s easier than ever before to create your own business and the power is shifting from the corporations to the individual. Over the past five years there has been a tenfold increase in the number of registered start ups from 10 million to over 100 million and technology has acted as a force multiplier for Entrepreneurs helping give them faster, simpler access to funding, expertise, resources, advanced software and hardware prototyping technologies and mass markets. Consider the tale of Brian Acton. He spent $200 building an app, spent $0 on marketing, scaled it via the social networks and sold it for $19 Billion. Yes WhatsApp’s great but there are another 218 Brian Actons – forty times more than at any other point in Human history who’ve created multi billion dollar companies from next to nothing in just a few years and those companies have created over $1.5 Trillion in new value and turned established industries on their heads. Someone Uber me a cab!
If however Entrepreneurship isn’t for you and you think the future will look increasingly bleak then consider this. Do you really think that in the next 50 to 100 years you will only remain “Human”? During the course of this Century, as we all head towards an event called the “Singularity” we are going to be challenged to revise our definition of what it is to be Human. Today we access information via our smart devices but in the future we will use Brain to Computer interfaces to plug directly into the web. At the same time new Genetic technologies like CRISPR, a technology that is so powerful it’s described as “God Like” will help us re-write our own genetic code and enhance our own natural capabilities. Machines might be scary but Human Machine hybrids of the future will be scarier and let’s stay away from the term “Cyborg” it’s too 1980’s... Conclusion If you think the machines will inevitably win the race for jobs then you’re only looking at the short term but whatever happens the last thing you should do, in this age of individual empowerment is roll over and accept the inevitable. This story, "The future of jobs in a machine world" was originally published by CIO. Videos @ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601094/apples-recycling-robot-may-help-build-iphones-too/#/set/id/601095/
Apple’s Recycling Robot May Help Build iPhones, TooFew people noticed, but Apple did announce a remarkable and transformative new technology at its event on Monday: its first robot. by Will Knight March 22, 2016 Apple now makes robots. What’s more, the company’s new recycling robot, called Liam, may be evidence of a push to automate the production of the iPhone. At Apple’s slightly humdrum event on Monday, the company showed a video of Liam carefully pulling iPhones apart for recycling. The cutesy clip showed the robot unscrewing and removing the device’s case and pulling apart different electronic chips with suction cups before tossing an iPhone shell into a bin. What's most interesting about Liam is not its ability to pull phones apart, though—Apple has been automating the process of recycling damaged phones for some time. Rather, it is a glimpse into what an automated assembly process might look like. Automation is rapidly moving into areas of manufacturing in China that have traditionally relied on low-cost manual skills because wages are rising so quickly—12 percent per year since 2001—and also because it offers an edge over competitors. I visited several manufacturers in China recently to learn more about this trend, and I saw how rapidly they are adding robots to production lines. The shift seems inexorable, and it’s likely to shape the evolution of the Chinese economy, as well as the global manufacturing picture. The technologies seen in the Liam video are becoming especially common at various stages of manufacturing. For example, the clip Apple showed included a camera capturing exactly how an opened iPhone was held in a custom robot arm so that another component could swoop in and remove screws. Apple gave Mashable a sneak peak at Liam before Monday’s reveal, and apparently there are 29 different robot arms working together to unscrew, detach, drill, and manipulate old iPhones. Foxconn, which built its reputation on managing hundreds of thousands of workers, is already at the forefront of the automation revolution. The company has replaced tens of thousands of workers with robots already, and it recently began selling the robots it is developing as part of this push. Perhaps Liam is evidence that Apple is doing its part to automate manufacturing of its most iconic product. SCMP
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 01 July, 2015, 8:01am UPDATED : Wednesday, 01 July, 2015, 8:33am 
26 Nov 2015 Foxconn, the world’s biggest contract electronics maker, has been developing industrial robots as it targets 30 per cent automation at its Chinese factories by 2020, it said this week. The Taiwanese company, which lists Apple among its clients, is also now on the verge of marketing its Foxbots to other manufacturers on the Chinese mainland, it told the South China Morning Post. According to senior management, re-purposed robotic solutions and automated assembly will be Foxconn’s next focus as it bids to slim its massive workforce and build new sales channels. Previous media reports that claimed it was eyeing 70 per cent automation within three years are erroneous, the company said, pointing to comments issued by Foxconn CEO Terry Gou at last week’s annual general meeting. 
The company, which has been keeping quiet about its robotics projects, opened its robot testing lab in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to reporters from the Post last weekend. Its Chinese factories, including those in Shenzhen, are already filled with over 50,000 fully operational industrial robots, as well as hundreds of thousands of other pieces of automated equipment, said Day Chia-Peng, general manager of Foxconn’s automation technology development committee. He said the company plans to add at least another 10,000 robots a year to its facilities in China.
Instead, the company still employs over one million workers in China. “It was kind of a dream, in terms of numbers. We hoped it would work out, but the reality proved different,” Day said. 
Foxconn began developing its own industrial robots in 2007. It now has 1,600 employees at two factories in Shenzhen and Jincheng, in Shanxi province, who churn out 10,000 Foxbots a year, Day said. The machines are capable of performing more than 20 manufacturing tasks, including pressing, printing, polishing, packaging and testing. Using them to replace staff in so-called “3D” jobs – positions that are deemed dirty, dangerous and dull – is the company’s top priority, Day said. The company was motivated to focus on this area due to safety concerns and manpower shortages in recent years, he said. READ MORE: US$154 billion rise of the robots planned for Pearl River Delta manufacturingFoxbots should hit the market soon, and the first customer is likely to be another Chinese manufacturer, he added, without giving a name or deadline. Early this year, Gou said Foxconn would continue to deepen its investment in robotics. Day’s team will focus on researching ways to further automate assembly lines that require the most number of bodies, he said. As such, it is keeping an eye out for any breakthroughs in automated assembly in the electronics manufacturing industry. 
Day said robotics was not an easy field to venture into. “We couldn't help but make a lot of blunders,” he said, using the difficulty of replicating people’s hand-eye coordination as an example. “It’s hard work.” He said the company was focusing more on flexible reprogramming so the robots could be reused, or reformatted, further down the road. This is especially important as product cycles in the electronics industry keep shortening. “Whatever robotic solution is delivered for our industry, it will have to be able to be re-purposed every few months,” he said. The actual robot is just one part of the solution package. Grippers, sensors, vision systems, parts feeders and software are “at least as important – if not more so,” Day added. However, he urged local authorities in China to proceed with caution rather than overheat investment in the sector, or look to robots as a cure-all solution for the nation’s labour shortages. He also stressed that they were not a tool to counter the economic slowdown China now faces after decades of unchecked growth.
Cities in the province are handing out annual subsidies of between 200 million and 500 million yuan to makers of robots and manufacturers who install robots on assembly lines. Robots are also set to take over factories in China’s Pearl River Delta area, in the south of the country, as manufacturers there step up their tech investments to take advantage of new government incentives. China is already bristling with low-end industrial robotics that can perform routine tasks like pressing and polishing, due to all the industrial parks set up in nearby cities, Day said. Some 200,000 intelligent robots were operating in the country at the end of 2014, the IFR said. IDG Connect 
Business Process Automation Directory: tlairson -> ibtech tlairson -> The South China Sea Is the Future of Conflict tlairson -> Nyt amid Tension, China Blocks Crucial Exports to Japan By keith bradsher published: September 22, 2010 tlairson -> China Alters Its Strategy in Diplomatic Crisis With Japan By jane perlez tlairson -> The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 21, No. 3, May 27, 2013. Much Ado over Small Islands: The Sino-Japanese Confrontation over Senkaku/Diaoyu tlairson -> Chapter 5 The Political Economy of Global Production and Exchange tlairson -> Chapter IX power, Wealth and Interdependence in an Era of Advanced Globalization tlairson -> Nyt india's Future Rests With the Markets By manu joseph published: March 27, 2013 tlairson -> Developmental State tlairson -> The Economist Singapore The Singapore exception To continue to flourish in its second half-century, South-East Asia’s miracle city-state will need to change its ways, argues Simon Long ibtech -> History of the Microprocessor and the Personal Computer, Part 2 Download 5.27 Mb. Share with your friends:
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