Robots and the Workplace

Vocabulary

Video: Robots in the Workplace

Transcript

This corner pizza-delivery shop will eventually be employee-free. Soon robots will be taking orders over the internet, and carrying out the deliveries.

Welcome to the wave of the future.

Video-linked machines could also replace security staff in shopping centers. In emergencies, they would be able to alert human personnel at a central office.

These are just some examples of the jobs robots will be able to do in the age of Industry 4.0.

Researchers at Oxford University estimate that nearly every second job is at risk in the long-term.

But according to the Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics, there’s no reason for panic. They point to the highly automated German auto industry, which has seen no significant decrease in factory employees in recent years.

The numbers show that more and more industrial robots are being bought worldwide: in 2010, manufacturers supplied a total of one-hundred-twenty-one thousand robots.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, that’s set to climb to half-a-million by 2020.

This trend offers new opportunities, especially in leading robot-manufacturing countries, such as Japan, the US, South Korea, China and Germany.

There will continue to be urgent demands for skilled software developers, mechanical engineers and installation technicians.

Questions

1. Only people can make and deliver pizzas. True or false?

2. Can many different jobs be performed by robots?

3. Some experts say that many people will be unemployed because of robots, while other people say most people will still have jobs. Is this right or wrong?

4. What happened to Germany’s car industry?

6. Will there be more and more robots in the future?

7. Do some countries dominate the robotics industry and market?

6. What kinds of jobs will be created as a result of robotization?

A. Is there robotics, automation or computerization in your workplace or organization? What tasks do they perform?

B. Have you witnessed changes at your company, school or in stores?

C. Automation and robotics is great! What do you think?

D. What will happen in the future?

E. What should people who lost their jobs to robots do? What should the government do?