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If Robots Take Our Jobs, What Will Be Left for Humans to Do?

Speakers at the WIRED Business Conference grapple with how AI will transform the job market.

Released on 06/16/2016

Transcript

(upbeat music)

When the robots take our jobs,

what will humans do?

I think the obvious answer is, have more sex.

We will become shepherds again.

And it will be our job to care for

and tend to our flock of robots.

Well, I think that that's kind of a pretty dark

vision of the future.

I actually think about AI helping humanity

and saving lives.

Well, I feel like it's already happening.

I think both presidential candidates are actually AI.

I think, as they augment them,

there's an opportunity there for all of us to explore

that next level of what we can all be.

So it's subtly the progress of AI,

like every technological progress is gonna displace jobs,

but this is not a new phenomenon.

We've been used to this since the Industrial Revolution.

I fundamentally believe,

robots are not gonna take our job.

Let's imagine a robot helping an elderly person at home.

That doesn't replace a nurse.

It actually lets the nurse not worry about washing,

maybe helping the person up.

It lets the nurse worry about the health of the person,

maybe their mental health is at risk.

I'm sure we will come up with more things to do,

more jobs to have, in the future.

If the robots end up taking those jobs

and there are literally no jobs for us to do, ever,

I think we'll all just go sit on a beach

and think about life's big questions,

like, why does bacon taste so good?

Clearly, the only thing left for humans to do will be

to take care of the robots, which will ultimately

be bad for the robots because, I kind of feel like

the care will be kind of slack.

They'll be bad. There'll be poor maintenance.

The robots are gonna get mad.

They won't really be able to come up with robots

that can take care of themselves,

'cause then those robots will need human maintenance,

so, ultimately poor maintenance will be the demise

of all the robots in the world.

The humans will once again triumph

and go back to the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to.