23. Questions 23-33 are based on the following passage. |
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Will You Lose Your Job to a Robot? |
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Automation has become a threat to society, and rapid |
technological advances are enabling machines to perform |
a growing number of tasks traditionally done by humans. |
Law firms now use artificial intelligence (AI) [23] to |
conduct contract analysis, for hunting down client |
conflicts, and even craft litigation strategy. McDonald’s is |
replacing drive-thru workers with order-taking AI, and |
cashiers with self-checkout kiosks. From 1990 to 2007, |
[24] robots replaced about 670,000 U.S. jobs, mostly in |
manufacturing; every robot introduced into a local |
economy claimed 6.2 jobs. That trend will accelerate over |
the next decade, as advances in mobile technology, AI, |
data transfer, and computing speed [25] allows robots to |
act with greater independence. Oxford University |
researchers [26] concluded and established the result in a |
major 2013 study that 47 percent of American jobs are at |
“high risk” of automation within two decades. |
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Jobs that are mostly at risk are those involving |
repetitive physical tasks in predictable environments. |
[27] The Palm Beach County Court recently began using |
four robots — Wally Bishop, Rosie Tobor, Kitt Robbie, |
and Speedy — to read court filings, fill out docket sheets, |
and input data into its case management system. In theory, |
at least 91 percent of a short-order cook’s tasks can be |
automated using existing technology. It’s 100 percent for a |
dredge operator, plasterer, stucco mason, motion picture |
projectionist, and logging equipment operator. |
[28] Similarly, jobs that involve managing people, social |
interaction, and creative thinking, will see less |
automation. But even the jobs you’d think are safe aren’t. |
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The Guardian Australia newspaper published its first |
article this year written entirely by a computer. The Indian |
e-commerce site Myntra recently created one of its |
bestselling T-shirts by delegating the design [29] for two |
algorithms that analyzed previous designs and invented |
new ones. Despite the number of people losing their jobs to |
automation, many prophesy that artificial intelligence is |
still years away from sending all of humanity on a |
permanent vacation. [30] History has shown that previous |
fateful warnings about technology wiping out the need for |
human labor [31] have proved untrue — although there is |
often a difficult transition period to new jobs requiring |
new skills. |
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In the 19th century, farmers rendered [32] out of fashion |
by mechanized agriculture found their way to new, better |
paying jobs in factories. When industrial |
automation in the 20th century threatened |
factory workers, [33] this created an ever-growing pool of |
unemployable humans who could not compete |
economically with machines. If history is any guide, |
According to 2013 study, we could also expect that 8 to 9 |
percent of 2030 labor demand will be in new types of |
occupations that have not existed before. |