The Future of Robots on Human Labour
General Purpose: To inform the audience on the future of Employment with the Use of Robots
Specific Purpose: To explain the negative impact of automation in the workplace and the solution.
Organization pattern: Persuasive Speech
Introduction
Attention Getter: How would you as an employee, fell when your employer one day comes to the workplace with some robots, set them perform your task and then gives you a termination letter?
Relevance to Audience: There is a negative prediction on the future of jobs with the increased use of robots in the workplace. The way human beings perform their day-to-day tasks is being affected by advances in technology and more specifically automation. Artificial Intelligence has been applied to machines through machine learning in that these machines can reason and make predictions like human beings can. According to Nielsen, Neural networks and deep learning are used to program machines on what tasks to perform, how to perform them, and how to solve problems (Nielsen, 2015).
Credibility Statement: Did you know that today, machines can understand natural language which is evident by apps such as Siri? Having done sufficient research in the field of technology and artificial intelligence, I feel ready to present the speech on the adverse effects of robots in the work place and the solution.
Thesis: Middle class income jobs that are based on a routine and application of intelligence in performance are already facing the threat of human labor being replaced by machines.
Causes and Effects of Automation in the work place.
Transition: Company owners are looking forward to maximizing income while minimizing expenditure. Robots do not require wages but can work ten times more than human labor can, 24/7 without getting tired (Carbonero, et al., 2018).
The replacement of human labor with machines has led to an increase in the income gap and is predicted to heighten. The organizational and company owners are predicted to earn more with increased productivity by using robots (Löfgren, 2016).
Transition: The employees that will be laid off will only be left to look for manual labor that can hardly sustain their lifestyle. The future of the economy will therefore be characterized by instability whereby the majority of the people will be below the poverty line (Carbonero, et al., 2018).
Transition: There is a threat of poor performance among employees that are forced to work as Helpants to robot. The employees feel that their integrity is undermined hence creating work tension which may compromise the quality of work (Löfgren, 2016). The employees may end up intentionally damaging the robots which causes losses on the side of the employer.
Solution
Transition: Organizations have a duty of coming up with methods through which human being can work together with robot since technological advancements are inevitable. One of the ways to harmonize the Human-Robot working relationship is through changing the attitudes of the employees so that they can accept the idea of working together. The more workers begin to perceive the robots being similar to them, the more they begin to create meaningful interactions with them (Vysocky, & Novak, 2016). It is therefore necessary that manufacture of the robots that are to work with human take into consideration the similarity levels and the safety of the human employees as they interact with the robots. The robot could be programmed to like the things that the employees like, or to have similar work values and styles to the employees to enhance interaction and safety.
Transition: Since the world is evolving at a very high rate and so is technology, the employees should increase their knowledge and skills (Pissarides, 2018). The major reason for the argument on improving skills is because the increased productivity resulting from the use of robots will lead to demand for highly skilled labor which will eventually mean a high income. It will be up to the employees to get ready for the future if they want to benefit from the foreseeable benefits of automation and use of robots in the workplace (You & Robert 2018).
Conclusion
Summary: Robots will in the future replace human labour leading to income inequality. It will require the change of attitudes and improved work skills for there to be meaningful interaction between humans and machines.
Emphasis on main idea: Unless harmony between machine and humans is created, the robots will create a generation where the largest percentage will be low income earners and the minority will be high income earners hence a very big income gap.
Motivating Audience Response: Would you rather live in a society where there is no chance for you at the workplace and only left to mop toilet floors or a society where you work harmoniously with a Robot and even communicate? Because that is the only option.
Closing remark: The robot technology has potential to overpower human intelligence if manufactures do not pay respect to human values. Elon musk, Steve Jobs, Hopkins and other technology genius know or knew the threat ahead with automation if we are not careful.
References
Carbonero, F., Ernst, E., & Weber, E. (2018). Robots worldwide: The impact of automation on employment and trade. ILO Research Department Working Paper, (36).
Löfgren, F. (2016). How may robots affect the labour market in the near future? The European Liberal Forum (ELF).
Nielsen, M. A. (2015). Neural networks and deep learning (Vol. 25). San Francisco, CA, USA: Determination press.
Pissarides, C. (2018). Work in the Age of Robots and AI. IZA 20th Anniversary Celebration, Berlin, 28-29.
Vysocky, A., & Novak, P. (2016). Human-Robot collaboration in industry. MM Science Journal, 9(2), 903-906.
You, S., & Robert Jr, L. P. (2018). Human-robot similarity and willingness to work with a robotic co-worker. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 251-260). ACM.
