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Robots are coming for your job and there’s nothing you can do to stop it
You’re an average working Joe. Face it. Every day you clock in and out and go about your day without expecting a robot to take your job.
Well, that’s all about to change. The South Korean tech giant, LG Electronics, showcased three new “concept robots” next week at the global consumer electronics show, CES, in Las Vegas.
The three “concept robots” are designed for the service industry and are for commercial use at hotels, airports, and supermarkets.
Sleek, smooth, and cool, right? Nah, FOH! These bots are looking to fuck up a check.
The first, a server bot which will outdo a waitress/waiter real quick, by delivering drinks and food to customers at hotels and airport lounges 24/7.
The second bot is a mechanical bell boy that can carry luggage to rooms and handle hotel visitor check-ins and check-outs.
Lastly, the third bot threatens the jobs of supermarket workers and are designed to tell grocery store shoppers the price of products and guide them through the aisles.
Damn, they took our jobs!
Although CNBC reported that the LG robots are still “a long way from ready to go public,” the threat to the service industry is real.
In fact, McKinsey & Company released a report predicting, that if automation continues to develop at the rate at which it is, by 2030 as many 800 million human workers are at risk of being replaced by a robot.
Proving this rapid advancement of automation in the workplace just take a look at McDonald’s, Amazon, and the Henn na Hotel in Japan.
Mcdonald’s former chief executive, Edward Rensi, who started working for the fast-food giant in the 60s, said in an interview with Fox Business Network, that he has seen the number of employees cut in half due to automation.
Amazon recently launched their first smart store, “Amazon Go,” that doesn’t require cashiers at all in downtown Seattle.
If the smart store is a success, it could change the game putting cashiers at risk of losing their jobs. Currently, as reported by the Bureau of Labor, cashiers are the second-largest occupation and employ 3.5 million in the U.S.
The Henna na Hotel in Japan opened their second robot staffed hotel in Chiba last year and they’re looking to open 100 more.
At the Chiba location, there are 140 robots handling reception, cleaning, and transporting luggage. The six-story building doesn’t have room for human workers staffing only seven of them.
These robots are really out here
Look, we should all be shook, especially if Elon Musk is. Back in July, he said,
“There certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us. … I mean all of us. Transport will be one of the first to go fully autonomous. But when I say everything — the robots will be able to do everything, bar nothing… I am not sure exactly what to do about this. This is really the scariest problem to me, I will tell you.”
Better start going extra-extra hard at work. We’re talking about service industry jobs across the board.
https://giphy.com/gifs/robots-jobs-DeIDJp3Li66DC