© A. Ferworn 2017

Will Robots Take My Job?

Prof. Alex Ferworn

Dept of Computer Science

Ryerson University

Technology-Human Synergy and Discord

© A. Ferworn 2017

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!

© A. Ferworn 2017

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

© A. Ferworn 2017

Is what you see in the video a robot?

• ROBOT

– Sense

– Control

– Actuate

– Communicate

© A. Ferworn 2017

• Are we being subjugated?– Subjugate: to conquer and gain the obedience of

– Observation: Things aren’t that bad

Us

ThemProblem

© A. Ferworn 2017

Technology is agnostic but how we use it falls into roughly 3 categories

The Good The Bad The Ugly

© A. Ferworn 2017

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.

• Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, “The Future of Employment…”

1851

1894

© A. Ferworn 2017

20 Year Job Trends2010 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and wage data

$100-200K/yr

$50-100K/yr

$12-26K/yr

$26-50K/yr

>70%30% to 70%<30%

Other Sources: Carl Frey and Michael Osborne, “The Future of Employment…”, 2013 and Workopolis.ca

© A. Ferworn 2017

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

© A. Ferworn 2017

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

© A. Ferworn 2017

The Trouble with This Kind of “Intelligence”

© A. Ferworn 2017

Sensing and Control are Getting Better

• Behold Atlas!

• Behold Atlas and buddies after a night on the town?

© A. Ferworn 2017

We’re Too Expensive

© A. Ferworn 2017

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

© A. Ferworn 2017

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

© A. Ferworn 2017

Humanitarian Robotics

• Canine-Assisted Robot Deployment (CARD)

© A. Ferworn 2017

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.

© A. Ferworn 2017

Subjugation--reload

Thank you