The robots may or may not steal our jobs. Headlines frequently announce that AI will leave half the population unemployed, but a closer look at the data indicates a smaller impact. And history, including very recent history, suggests that automation ends up complementing non-automated work, rather than replacing it.
But even if the robots don’t steal our jobs, they may be stealing our humanity.
By that I mean that the common habit of treating robots as people—however much it seems like a joke or a shorthand or a metaphor—could erode our already diminished sense of the human person as uniquely special. Effusive media reports give the impression that robots will befriend us, play with our children, and care for us when we are old—and that they may be (at least) as good as the human alternative.
#Technology #robotics : Meet Sophia: The robot who smiles and frowns just like us https://t.co/HIU8kU9glN pic.twitter.com/u5nVCsvVbh
— My Beautiful Destination (@MyBeauDes) June 2, 2019