Stephen Hawking on labor market robots

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    Stephen Hawking believes that robots could give us wealth and freedom - but we are more likely to face poverty and unemployment . The physicist warns that intelligent machines can make human labor unclaimed.

    Once again warning of the potential danger of the development of artificial intelligence , physicist Stephen Hawking emphasized that by making human labor unclaimed, intelligent robots can cause massive social inequality . Hawking expressed his fear during an online interview on the Reddit service from the AMA series (Ask Me Anything).

    One Reddit user asked Hawking if the development of intelligent robots and programs could cause "technological unemployment" by making expensive and unreliable human labor a relic of the past.

    Hawking replied: “The result depends on the distribution of benefits received. Everyone will be able to enjoy an idle way of life if the wealth gained through the machines is divided equally. However, if owners of intelligent cars can evade redistribution, most people may be below the poverty line. ”

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    Automation and technological advances have already replaced people in many professions . So, robots perform most of the tasks on the Chrysler assembly line.
     
    “At the moment, unfortunately, the second scenario seems more likely. Due to new technologies, inequality is increasing, ”said the scientist.

    So, many are haunted by the understanding that once robots can take away work from people. In another scenario, however, such a technological revolution could make people's lives much easier and better.

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    At Tesla, the changes touched the electric car assembly line, where previously used steel structures were replaced by high-tech robots.

    Some technologists, as well as supporters of the idea of ​​basic income, suggest raising taxes for companies that plan to replace their staff with robots in the future.

    These enterprises will not need to pay their “robotic” employees, who, moreover, will be able to work 24 hours a day without interruptions and sick leave. Thus, the income of the owners of such companies will still be many times higher than the current, even despite increased taxes.

    Taxpayer money, in turn, will be distributed among ordinary citizens. Having a basic income, ordinary people will be able to afford to work much less or not work at all.

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    Audi robots  do most of the work, including spot welding, shaping and assembly.

    It all sounds like a sci-fi movie plotbut, nevertheless, the world in which insensible machines can replace the expensive labor of man no longer seems so unimaginable.

    According to studies from Oxford University in 2013, representatives of 47 percent of professions, including those in the field of accounting and law, may lose demand over the next 20 years due to the automation of production processes.

    Another report provided by the Australian Youth Rights Group (FYA) warns that about 70% of young people in Australia are currently involved in those professions whose impact on automation will be “radical”.

    In addition, this process will affect at least two-thirds of the professions that are currently mastered by approximately 60% of students in Australia. 

    According to Hawking, it is the technologists and politicians of tomorrow who will determine that the machines of the future will bring ordinary people to life - idleness and luxury or poverty and unemployment. 

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