We Should Not Fear That Robots Will Take Our Jobs

Author: Donatella Pauković

June 9, 2022

It is very likely that in 10 years you will not be doing the job you are doing now, but it is very possible that a robot will be doing it. However, despite people’s fears that their jobs will be replaced by robots, this will by no means be the case.

Namely, as British futurist Daniel Susskind explained at the Future Tense conference, robots, or rather the artificial intelligence behind them, will perform part of the work instead of us, which means one thing for us – we will work differently and we will have to adopt some completely new skills for the jobs of the future. To achieve this, we still need to start from traditional education and build upon it over the years.

– In 1997, many doubted that a computer could defeat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. We all know how that ended. We are witnessing the accelerated development of technology, robots that can do almost everything. Consequently, many jobs can be automated. All of this was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic during which we all massively used technology in our daily work – said Susskind.

In his presentation, he also touched upon the common belief among people that so-called white-collar jobs, i.e., highly qualified, non-physical jobs do not involve routine repetitions as in manual jobs, i.e., blue-collar jobs. This assertion is also not entirely accurate as both administrative and managerial jobs consist of numerous repetitive tasks. This is where automation comes in, which will help us work better, said Susskind.

The coronavirus pandemic not only stimulated the digitalization and automation of business processes but also created a cultural shift towards greater acceptance of new technologies among ‘technological conservatives’.

We Must Not Fear Technology

Futurist Susskind was joined on the panel discussion by Ivan Vidiš, State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Pension System, Nikola Kapraljević, CEO of Infinum, and Ivana Galić Baksa, Director of PR and Corporate Communications at Nova TV (United Media). The panel was moderated by Hrvoje Balen, co-founder and member of the board of Algebra.

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As the greatest change in the IT sector, which is still ongoing, Kapraljević highlighted the globalization of the workforce along with remote work.

– We must accept the fact that our competition for labor now comes from all over the world, not just from the local environment – said the recent CEO of Infinum, adding that when it comes to the future of jobs, we will still need doctors to operate on us.

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With changes in the labor market come changes in education. As Ivan Vidiš stated, the Ministry of Labor and Pension System constantly monitors changes and finances various projects accordingly, including the project of the Artificial Intelligence Center in Lipik and projects in the gaming and programming sectors.

That we should not fear technology and that its development can only help us was stated by Ivana Galić Baksa, emphasizing that Nova TV has transformed from a media company that creates content into a data analysis company.

– Machines as journalists? What is crucial is that viewers and readers need to be presented with objective information, different opinions, and perspectives. Emotions are very important – emphasized Galić Baksa, adding that when journalists create content, they still need a person to further edit it.

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Robotics as Part of Culture

After the panel, the audience was surprised by a special guest at the presentation of academician Bojan Jerbić, a professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. Jerbić, who is one of the founders and director of CRTA, the Regional Center of Excellence for Robotic Technologies, brought to the stage Spot, one of the robots they work with at the only such Center in the region. As he explained, they do not want robotics to be just a skill, but also a part of culture, which is why their center CRTA is open to the public.

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– About ten years ago, many did not believe that artificial intelligence was possible, but now it is a reality. We are trying to create the future. We are creating robots that can collaborate. Some scientists say we are overly ambitious, but what I want to say is that no one will stop us from asking questions – said Bojan Jerbić.

In robot production, the biggest challenge is to make them agile and fast, said Jerbić. He also agreed that, although many fear that robots will replace our jobs, modern robotics is going in the completely opposite direction and that robots will be our collaborators.

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