Will Robots Take My Job? Technology-Human Synergy and Discord Prof. Alex Ferworn Dept of Computer Science Ryerson University
Alex Ferworn Professor Sceptic Graduate Program Director Master of Digital Media Program Background 8 years at Bell Canada 14 years in the Canadian Army Infantry 2 years as an Auxiliary in the Ontario Provincial Police Researcher Director of the Network-Centric Applied Research Lab (N- CART) Mostly dogs and robots Let s pick on robots!
Why I Pick on Robots? Term robot first used in Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (R.U.R.) (1920) a science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. Roboti compulsory laborers (slaves) Useful definition. Robot: Any artifice that Senses, Actuates, Exhibits Control, and Communicates
Is what you see in the video a robot? ROBOT Sense Control Actuate Communicate
Us Are we being subjugated? Subjugate: to conquer and gain the obedience of Observation: Things aren t that bad Them Problem
Technology is agnostic but how we use it falls into roughly 3 categories The Good The Bad The Ugly
The Robots are Coming New technologies inevitably Eliminate existing jobs Create new types of jobs This has always been the case The existing jobs remain but humans don t do them 47% of existing American jobs could be vulnerable to automation within 20 years. 1851 1894 Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, The Future of Employment
20 Year Job Trends 2010 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and wage data $100-200K/yr $50-100K/yr $26-50K/yr $12-26K/yr <30% 30% to 70% >70% Other Sources: Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, The Future of Employment, 2013 and Workopolis.ca
Why the shift to robots Machines are getting smarter Better algorithms ( big data, blah, blah) Better computers (cheap brute force) Sensing and control is getting better Controllers: cheap, plentiful and connected Sensors better and with DATA OUT ports We re expensive
Machines are Getting Smarter Kind of IBM Watson Natural language question answering super computer system Specifically developed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy! Cancer diagnostics Oncologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center use Watson to provide chronic care and cancer treatment diagnostics. 600,000 medical reports, 1.5 million patient records and clinical trials, and two million pages of text from medical journals
The Trouble with This Kind of Intelligence
Sensing and Control are Getting Better Behold Atlas! Behold Atlas and buddies after a night on the town?
We re Too Expensive
What can t robots do? Perception and manipulation Unstructured environments tend to baffle intelligent systems. Creative Intelligence The state of computer humour (Wired Magazine 2014) Question: What kind of animal rides a catamaran? Answer: A cat. Question: What is the difference between leaves and a car? Answer: One you brush and rake, the other you rush and brake. Social Intelligence You judge
Network-Centric Applied Research Team (N-CART) Multidisciplinary research supported by Graduate and Undergraduate Students Volunteers, Partner and Collaborating Organizations Computational Public Safety (PS) the application of computational resources, theory and practice in support of and improvement to PS processes. Not a typical computer science lab Dogs and Robots Best kept secret in Canada John Hickenlooper» Governor - Colorado
Humanitarian Robotics Canine-Assisted Robot Deployment (CARD)
The Robots are Still Coming Take away: in 20 years time, if current trends continue, many more jobs will be done by robots. Creative, imaginative, unstructured and socially intelligent jobs need humans (for now). As technology changes the world, its probably best that we know something about the technology.
Thank you Subjugation--reload