Making the Machines That Replace Humans
The use of industrial robots quadrupled between 1993 and 2007, and is forecasted to replace thousands of American jobs, creating worry among economists for the humans left unemployed. FoxConn plans to replace over 10,000 employees in China with robots, for example, and San Francisco-based Momentum Machines has revealed a robot that can make 400 hamburgers an hour. One robot can replace approximately six employees, but those in favor of automation argue that they complement human labor by making work lives more productive, while also creating jobs – jobs that require specific skillsets and advanced education, however. Jobs that require creativity and critical thinking will also be secure from automation, but the prohibitive task ahead is to improve the current educational system and adapt the American workforce towards attaining versatile, critical thinking skills.
See "Making the Machines That Replace Humans", Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, June 2, 2017