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Risk of Replacement : Physical Labor



Nowadays, when we enter many restaurants in shopping malls, we will see robot waiters walking around. Although they have been criticized for making it difficult for humans to work, the robots still serve and show their toughness by carrying many trays of food. And if you walk a little further to buy products in the mall, when paying, you will see a kiosk for calculating money that is easy to control, allowing customers to pay by themselves instead of paying with a cashier. As the payer, we do not have to wait in long lines anymore. Using robots or kiosks to provide automatic service systems makes life more convenient and easier. Technology has been developed to provide convenience and compensate for the shortage of labor and rising labor costs.


Some jobs are laborious, repetitive and confined to confined spaces, which AI can replace.

Today we continue with the book AI Superpower by Kai-Fu Lee. Last time, we talked about the risk of replacing cognitive jobs with AI. Today, we will expand on physical jobs or labor. What kind of jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI? Let's see.




From the Risk of replacement: Physical Lobour diagram, the y-axis represents work that must be socially relevant, communicating and interacting with humans to create an impression. From the bottom is work that has low social relevance to the top is work that has high social relevance. The x-axis represents the work area and environment. It is working in a single room, a single location or multiple locations. From the left is work in an environment with low structure and mobility to the right where the environment is highly mobile and unstructured. The risk of replacement with AI can be divided into 4 zones:


The Danger Zone on the lower left shows jobs that are at high risk of being replaced by AI.

Work in the same place is not complicated, repetitive and does not require much communication with people. It can be replaced with robots that we set up to work in a rule-based manner, which is sufficient for use. For example, a staff member who takes orders at a fast food restaurant, the Kiosk system allows customers to choose a menu and pay for it themselves. The order will be sent to the kitchen, helping to receive orders correctly and completely as the customer wants. Including labor-intensive work such as farming, there are labor-saving machines to facilitate. There is no need to hire many gardeners. You can harvest the produce with machines, making it fast and labor-saving as well.


The Safe Zone on the top right shows jobs that are at low risk of being replaced by AI.

It is a job that meets people and requires closeness, socializing, the work environment can change all the time. The nature of the work is complex and it is a job that values receiving service from people themselves, such as hairdressers who have to design hairstyles according to the customer's wishes or create hairstyles to match the customer's appearance, which requires a fair amount of specialized skills of hairdressers, elderly caregivers who have to be attentive and interact with the elderly, including physical therapists who have to use their professional skills and specific skills in communicating and caring for those close to them.


The Human Veneer on the top left represents jobs that are close to humans and value service from other people, such as hotel receptionists, caterers, or bartenders. These are all jobs that require a passion for service and a lot of communication with people, so they are also difficult to replace with AI.


Slow Creep on the lower right is a job that does not rely on human social skills, but is a job that requires expertise or the ability to adapt to different environments. This type of job is still difficult to replace with AI, such as plumbers, construction workers, aviation technicians, etc.


Living with AI and robots in an era with a variety of technologies is important, especially in the workplace. Learning and using AI to save effort is an option that will enhance the work being done. Adapting to reskill, finding new skills, including communication skills and working with others are still important. Being able to enhance the use of technology alongside the work being done will be able to expand and help us survive in an era with more AI development.



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refer

Kai-Fu Lee. AI Super-powers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World.

New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2018. 253pp.

 
 
 

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