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Will machines take over? Here’s how to profit from it – just in case
From hotels to banks, robots are invading the workplace. Should you be worried, and what's the best way to invest? Chris Carter reports.
Robot 'actroids' will be waiting to check you in from this summer
Seeing as I'm an endangered species, I'll keep this brief.
There's an episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk is (briefly) replaced as captain of the Enterprise by the M5', a supercomputer. He's none too keen on the idea, and wonders aloud: "Am I afraid of losing my job to that computer?"
Last week, Forbes magazine released a list of five jobs that have already gone to robots. Among the financial analysts, advisors and online marketers was the humble financial reporter.
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Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
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A couple of weeks ago, we looked at three jobs that robots have already been recruited to do this year. You can rest easy for the moment, they're all in Japan. If you missed it, here's a recap:
The bank clerk
Bank Mitsubishi UFJ has hired pint-sized robot Nao to work in its branches from next month. Created by French firm Aldebaran Robotics, he has sensors in his head that respond to customers' facial expressions and tone of voice. (Presumably for when he's turning down overdraft extensions.)
The hotel receptionist
This 'actroid' will be manning the reception desk at the Henn-na Hotel in Nagasaki
Check in to the Henn-na Hotel in Nagasaki from July and you will be greeted by a smiling young woman. But don't get too excited, she is in fact an actroid' a robot designed to look like a human.
Made by robotics firm Kokoro, she speaks four languages, including English. And while you're still trying to figure out where the batteries go, a handy little robotic bellhop will have relieved you of your luggage. Whether you'll find him in your room, waiting for a tip has yet to be seen.
The sales assistant
Robot Pepper is already helping out at mobile phone stores in Tokyo
Pepper, another Aldebaran robot, will be busy selling Nespresso coffee machines in hundreds of stores by the end of the year, Nestl Japan has said. The 120-cm tall emotional' robot (he is selling coffee products after all) is already at mobile phone SoftBank stores in Tokyo.
Automated threats to jobs don't stop with robots. Just ask a cabbie what he thinks of self-driving cars. Google, Tesla, possibly Apple, and many of the mainstream makes are all busy working on cars that'll whisk junior off to school, while you roll over and go back to sleep. (You haven't got a job, remember.)
The FT reported on Junji Tsuda, chief executive of Japanese robotics company Yaskawa Electric, who doesn't think robotic hands are developing fast enough to pose a threat. "There are many robots under development that are intelligent but can't do anything", he said. (Then again, the same could be said of university graduates.)
There's also the argument that robots will create jobs as well as destroy them, since, as Tsuda points out, we're going to need an army of human engineers to service all these mechanoids.
What is clear is that whatever your feelings on robotic colleagues, it looks like they're here to stay. If you're interested in having a punt on the rise of intelligent machines, our editor-in-chief Merryn Somerset Webb, took a look at the nine best robotic stocks last November. It's well worth a read.
As for me, I'm with the recently departed sci-fi icon Leonard Nimoy, who in his incarnation as Star Trek science officer Spock, said "Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them". The question is, will we have a choice?
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