What role will robots play in our future?

Hannah Elshennawi

Dr. O'Brien

Language and Literature 2

9/24/2024

What role will robots play in our future.

    There are many debates on whether robots and Artificial Intelligence will positively or negatively influence our future and whether they will help humans or make humans irrelevant. Some argue that AI and robots will have a bad impact on our future. That they will make humans lazy overtime and take over the workforce. Others argue that they will benefit to humans' everyday lives. They believe that they could actually create work opportunities and also do a variety of things many humans aren’t capable of doing. 

    In my opinion, robots are going to make humans dependent, relying on technology. I believe this because humans won’t need to do many tasks because AI/robots can do it faster. Meaning, humans won’t need to learn everyday skills and will completely rely on them to do all the work. A study compares a group of humans working with a robot and a group of humans. Both groups were assigned to do the same task yet after the study, it was shown that the group of humans did better than the group of humans and a robot. One source says “Working alongside robots might make humans much lazier in their own work. This technology could even result in unintentional carelessness and a decline in work quality.” (Tran) This quote explains the negative impact technology could have on humans' quality of work and productivity.

    Additionally, I believe that robots/AI will take away many jobs from humans who haven't had a chance to get a high-level education including immigrants and younger people. This leaves them with less options and dominated by robots in the workforce. Robots and machinery can replace humans in many roles such as customer service, uber driving, bookkeeping, receptionists, and so much more convenient jobs and careers. An article says "By 2030, tasks that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently being worked in the U.S. economy could be automated — with Black and Hispanic employees left especially vulnerable to the change — according to McKinsey. Goldman Sachs even states 300 million full-time jobs could be lost to AI automation," (Thomas.) This shows the significant amount of loss of jobs for many minorities groups that AI will cause.

    To conclude, there are many dangerous roles robots and AI technology could play in our future. The advancements of these technologies could potentially take jobs away from people as well as make people lazy and rely on technology. Although AI and robots could positively affect our future in many ways, I believe that it can and will negatively affect our future even more. I believe that over time, robots and AI will reduce the number of convenient jobs available for humans and make them lazier and more dependent.

(Tran, Tony Ho. Robots and AI May Cause Humans to Become Dangerously Lazy. Daily Beast, 2023)

(Thomas, Mike. 14 Risks and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI). BuiltIn, 2024)