Study shows robots will take many jobs, only not Americans’

Mar 12, 2016 07:44 GMT  ·  By

A new study conducted by Pew Research Center revealed that no less than two thirds of Americans expect robots to be in charge of most of the work currently done by humans in approximately 50 years, but when it comes to their jobs, they don’t think machines would be able to do them.

As ironic as that might sound, Americans pretty much believe that robots indeed “will do much of the work currently done by humans,” but their jobs are secure because no machine is up to the task to take over their responsibilities.

While that’s clearly a risky assumption, let’s get to specifics.

The study shows that 65 percent of the respondents believe that robots will indeed take some jobs currently done by humans while only 32 percent of them said this isn’t going to happen.

80 percent of the Americans interviewed by researchers said their jobs would continue to exist while only 18 percent of them were a little bit more pessimistic and expressed their concerns over robots stealing their jobs.

“Americans who work in the government, nonprofit or education sectors are a bit more skeptical about the future of workforce automation than are Americans who work for a large corporation, medium-sized company or small business. Just 7% of Americans who work in the government, education or nonprofit sectors expect that robots and computers will definitely take over most human employment in the next 50 years,” the research shows.

Bill Gates: This is going to happen!

Although the average Joe doesn’t seem to be thinking that robots could take over their jobs, those who are already in the industry believe otherwise. Case in point, Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates.

Currently one of the leading philanthropists in the world, Gates has talked about the evolution of robots several times, predicting a world full of machines doing the same thing as us. And what’s more important is that Gates believes that robots will significantly improve not in 50 years, but in the next decade.

“I think robots that have vision and manipulation as good as humans is a huge milestone that will happen in the next decade and is being underestimated,” Gates said. “I think medical advances will also be amazing and unbelievable. Like the robots some of the capabilities like gene editing will bring challenges with them.”

Thank for the tip, Joshua!