Trend: Smart machines are getting better and better

jobs, companies have big concerns if enough skilled talent would be available for their labor-intensive factories.

What if, in the future, there are no robots and no adequate number of workers either? A graying China seems to be an immediate challenge. Young professionals are tending to marry late, if at all. Having and raising babies does not seem to be among their top priorities.

Birthrate is slowing. Western-style consumption is on the rise. The end to rising labor costs does not appear to be in sight.

Amid all this, the fact that robots are not really conscious and versatile is overlooked. Robots outside laboratories, in unstructured environments, are mere machines, to be programmed, operated or controlled by humans.

A restaurant in Beijing, it was said online, got rid of three waiter robots it had bought because they frequently made mistakes when moving around, and could not respond to customers’ demand in time. These days, I tend to take online viral content about robots’ stupendous capabilities with a pinch of salt.

Robots will get better and better at performing tasks eventually. But it does not mean they will replace humans at work anytime soon. In some cases, they can actually help save jobs. For example, collaborative robots like the smart machines used in warehouses can work only when they are alongside human workers.

The latter, especially when they are nursing bad backs or sore knees, don’t have to walk around huge facilities. The robot assistants follow them and carry heavy loads around.

Such robots can reduce the wear and tear of a human body, protecting health and helping prolong careers.

Additionally, facilities that use robots tend to be more efficient and see higher productivity, thereby are less likely to shut.

Even for a worker who may be made redundant by the introduction of a robot in, say, a warehouse employing 40 workers, he or she will likely receive training in how to and manage the robots.

But without the robot, the warehouse could face closure and layoffs. This potential scenario became apparent during a visit to a fully automated Volvo auto plant earlier this year.

All around me, gigantic robotic arms and smart machines hummed, with a string of human workers overseeing them. A 40-year-old worker told me he used to assemble auto parts, but took about three months off to master the basics of robot control.

From then on, he developed a habit of frequent learning, given that the technology of robotic arms evolves with time.

Smart machines save workers from jobs involving repetitive, fix stress- and monotonyinducing tasks. Such workers find the time and resources to learn skills to perform zerostress, brain-sharpening tasks that produce a sense of achievement and fulfilment.

If a robot or algorithm-enabled automated software could perform “churnalism” — that is, churn out routine, dry, hard news based on press releases and official statements — I think I’d be free to focus more on producing real journalism: in-depth interviews, researchbased analyses, 360-degree features or profiles about trends or developments, and insightful columns.

By the way, you can see by now, can’t you, that this is a column written by a human being, not a robot.