Robotics expert Moshi Vardi claims that in the next thirty years, computers will be able to perform almost any job that humans can, the result of which could be an unemployment rate of 50%. He said this in a recent session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
No doubt, robots are getting more and more sophisticated. In the industrial sector, due to advancements in automation and robotization over the last 40 years, productivity has increased, but employment has reduced.
At present, there are millions and millions of industrial robots who have grabbed jobs from laborers. Moreover, smart machines like self-driving cars and intelligent drones are quickly taking over traditional jobs. As we see around us, in many fields, automatic systems are gaining jobs, removing humans from the equation.
Vardi is not the first one who has raised this issue. Last year, Wendell Wallach, a consultant, ethicist, and scholar at the Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, posed the same question. He said that now that technology is destroying more jobs than it creates, if the trend continues, we could face a serious crisis.
Vardi said,”I do not believe that technology can be stopped. The genie is out of the bottle. What we need to do is to start now thinking very hard and investing in research into how society can cope with the advance of automation.”
