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Robots Won't Take Away Our Jobs, or They Will and It Will Be 'liberating,' Profs Say


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A robot, coding.

A faculty panel at Cornell University considered how automation will impact jobs.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A faculty panel recently convened at Cornell University to discuss how automation will impact jobs, and Cornell professor Guy Hoffman called the notion of losing all professions to robots delusional.

He said the debate about robot-related job losses innately stems from gender bias among panelists, typically because the jobs that will soon be automated are male-dominated. "When you take a man's manufacturing job it's a disaster, but when it's in the home, it's just technology getting better," Hoffman noted.

A more optimistic outlook was shared by some panelists, with Cornell professor Kirstin Petersen contending, "Maybe we'll move towards a world where robots do more." Cornell professor Sasa Zivkovic suggested such a development would liberate people, and ensuring universal basic income could be an antidote for the jobs that would be lost to robots.

However, Cornell professor Ross Knepper said jobs are "an integral part of who you are and it's hard to pull yourself away from that."

From Cornell Daily Sun (NY)
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