Are we prepared for the era of robots

It has been in the international news and analyses lately how robots could in the near future be coming to take jobs many of us take for granted. The jobs could be in accounting or insurance, among a range of others, including hawking or being a watchman. Consider that computers can already distinguish different faces, and detect intruders in a closed-circuit camera picture more reliably than a human can. Further, and not mischievously, one philosopher has robustly argued how robots will one day probably make better lovers. “They will not only be much better at attending to our needs, especially our emotional needs, with their sophisticated algorithms for reading our micro-expressions, their perfect memory, indefatigable attentiveness, and so on. They will also be much better at the emotional labour required of the perfect lover.” Such, however, will not be human, or its “work” necessarily a job. Being human is a bit different. And though the robot is already here, let’s take the example of the community health worker to also see why her job may not likely be taken over by the robots. Rwanda has well over 60,000 Community Health Workers countrywide, according to 2010 data. Some of the gains that have been registered in maternal and child health, for instance—or in the uptake of modern contraception (from 10 percent in 2005 to 45 percent in 2010) have been, to a significant extent, due to their work. The community health workers deal directly with people in a case where humans will always be superior to robots when dealing with other humans in addressing their needs. If it is not because of empathy, then it will be because of spontaneous decisions the health worker has to make given the range human differences and needs among her clients. It is the same with the manager, who has to make similar decisions within the complexity of work demands and service delivery. Some of the safest jobs will, therefore, be those held by managers, health-care workers, including those in education, media, and community service. Routine jobs like those of insurance underwriters, desk or accounts clerk will better be handled by computers, which are good at executing routines. An example has been given how “by comparing reams of financial or biometric data, [computers] can often diagnose fraud or illness more accurately than any number of accountants or doctors.” Jobs most at risk include those in transportation (i.e., Google self drive vehicle is already on the road). Others include jobs in sales related industries and office and administrative support. With the spread and use of computers and the Internet, it is a requirement today that a junior officer at his desk right up to his manager has to have skills to type his own letters or respond to emails, which has put paid to the job of a secretary and the office messenger. Crucially, however, is how prepared our policy makers to the inevitability of automation and the coming of the robots? Historically, when machines took over jobs during the Industrial Revolution, schools were built to educate the workers to other roles in the evolving economies as the service industry took root. Now, with the digital revolution increasingly making many jobs obsolete, schools will need to be re-thought. It has been with us through history to productively adapt to our ever evolving socio-economic environments. Our policy makers will need to pay heed to the fact that education systems will need to be overhauled, entrenching more critical thinking in our classrooms and lecture halls, to ensure the creativity workers will need either to innovate into new jobs, or productively fit in our already evolving regional and global economies. The writer is a commentator on local and regional issues Twitter: @gituram