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Robots Will Eliminate 6% of All US Jobs By 2021, Says Report (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the commence-panic dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: By 2021, robots will have eliminated 6% of all jobs in the U.S., starting with customer service representatives and eventually truck and taxi drivers. That's just one cheery takeaway from a report released by market research company Forrester this week. These robots, or intelligent agents, represent a set of AI-powered systems that can understand human behavior and make decisions on our behalf. Current technologies in this field include virtual assistants like Alexa, Cortana, Siri and Google Now as well as chatbots and automated robotic systems. For now, they are quite simple, but over the next five years they will become much better at making decisions on our behalf in more complex scenarios, which will enable mass adoption of breakthroughs like self-driving cars. The Inevitable Robot Uprising has already started, with at least 45% of U.S. online adults saying they use at least one of the aforementioned digital concierges. Intelligent agents can access calendars, email accounts, browsing history, playlists, purchases and media viewing history to create a detailed view of any given individual. With this knowledge, virtual agents can provide highly customized assistance, which is valuable to shops or banks trying to deliver better customer service. The report predicts there will be a net loss of 7% of U.S. jobs by 2025 -- 16% of U.S. jobs will be replaced, while the equivalent of 9% jobs will be created. The report forecasts 8.9 million new jobs in the U.S. by 2025, some of which include robot monitoring professionals, data scientists, automation specialists, and content curators.

6 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. and before too long.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    We'll all look like the lazy fucks stuck on the spaceship in WALL-E.

    1. Re:and before too long.. by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just wait for the robots to unionize then there'll be 6 times as many jobs for humans as robots refuse to do degrading jobs that violate their inhuman rights

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    2. Re:and before too long.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The worst part is that these will be mostly immigrant robots.

  2. Race implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    This will disproportionately affect minorities, especially blacks, who tend to work in jobs that are candidates for replacement by robots. This definitely is a racial issue, and it's really disappointing that a little extra profit is worth further disadvantaging minorities.

  3. Re:Would anyone be able to tell at first? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

    By 2005, robots have already replaced SAP consultants. Which is easy, to be honest. They could get away with repeating 3 sentences over and over:

    That cannot be done in SAP.
    That wasn't specified.
    That has to be done on your end.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Overly optimistic by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Funny

    The article makes a lot of assumptions about security and reliability that it shouldn't. I see a very different future...

    The doorbell rings, and itâ(TM)s the delivery of a new pair of running shoes, in the wrong size and in a style and color you hate. And you're a double amputee who doesn't have feet. Hereâ(TM)s the kicker: They were listed for $3,000 on eBay and you didnâ(TM)t order them. Your intelligent agent did after being hacked by the guy in Nigeria who placed the eBay listing.

    But hey.. shipping was free, so at least you've got that going for you.