Look out, there's a robot just waiting to take over your job

They are cheaper, don't get tired, won't strike, and they might be better than you. Yan Yiqi reports.

In a restaurant newly opened in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province, four robots are busy waiting tables.

The robots, 1.3 meters tall and capable of lifting up to 3 kilograms, can deliver dishes, collect empty plates and communicate with customers in simple sentences.

Restaurant owner Zong Ning said that one such robot could serve 10 tables, replacing at least two waiters.

"The robots are 100 percent obedient and require charging only once a day. They are more efficient than waiters and waitresses," said Zong.

Each of the robots costs 70,000 yuan ($11,300). Zong said that it would take just one year to recover the money he has spent buying the robots compared with the money he is saving on human labor costs.

While consumers are still impressed by robot waiters employed by restaurants, it is easy to imagine that they will appear more and more in our daily lives. Some might even take over our jobs.

In October, Oxford University published a study of the application of robotics in the US labor force. It found that it is possible that as much as 47 percent of the labor force could be replaced with robots over the next two decades.

In China, the robotic revolution is moving forward in giant steps. In order to offset rising labor costs and a shortage of skilled workers, major problems plaguing China, robots are applied for many different uses.

Statistics show that industrial robots are being used in 25 sectors in China, including food, chemicals, electronics and automobiles.

According to the China Robot Industry Alliance, China has already overtaken Japan as the world's largest consumer of robots, buying more than one-fifth of the world's robot output.

Last year, 36,860 industrial robots were sold in the Chinese market, a growth of 36 percent year-on-year.

Song Xiaogang, president of the CRIA, said that the number of robots sold in China would reach 50,000 this year.

"From now on, the robot industry will maintain an annual growth rate of 40 percent for a long period of time," he said.

The rapid growth has encouraged Chinese companies to share a slice of the market.

By the end of October, China had more than 430 companies manufacturing robots. An average of two new companies joins the sector every week.

Song said that apart from robotic workers in manufacturing industries, which account for most robot application in China, he sees a growing demand for self-driving cars, delivery drones and even robot journalists by 2030.

"Many people find the artificial intelligence in movies like Interstellar amazing. It is not impossible that they will exist in the future. By then, robots will take over many human jobs," said Song.

Since the notion of artificial intelligence became a hot topic around the world, experts started to list the jobs that are most likely to be replaced by robots.

It is no surprise to find that highly repetitive jobs are on the list, but some are beyond imagination to most of us - at the moment.

10 jobs that are likely to be replaced by robots

1. Factory workers

Experts say that the more repetitive a job is, the more likely it is to be done by robots. Skills required in the manufacturing sectors are relatively low and repetitive. In most factories, workers could be replaced by robots because they are repeating only one or two actions every day.

While China is at the crossroads of upgrading labor-intensive industries for higher profits and efficiency, robots are the perfect choice for factory owners to replace humans, whose salaries have been rising in recent years.

Zhang Ruimin, CEO of China's leading home appliance company Haier Group, said that the company cut 16,000 staff last year. Among them, more than 6,000 were manufacturing workers replaced by robots.

"The robots can guarantee a long-time single-standard repetition of work, which is impossible for humans," he said.

And more importantly, robots will not establish a union and go on strike for more pay or less hours.

2. Clerical workers

Using computers, printing, copy and fax machines, it seems that robots could easily replace clerical workers. You can imagine robots handling all the paper work for their bosses.

Andrew Anderson, CEO of UK artificial intelligence company Celaton, said that clerical work will be done by robots within five years.

Anderson said that artificial intelligence could carry out labor-intensive clerical tasks quickly and automatically, while the latest models are also capable of making decisions that would traditionally be made by humans.

He said that AI could read and understand the meaning of entire documents by learning the patterns of words and phrases in context. It's this ability to learn that is reducing the need for clerical workers to carry out these repetitive tasks.

3. Waiters/waitresses

Restaurant owners all share the same headaches - customers complaining about errors made by waiters in taking their orders, slow service because the waiters are too busy, and the high cost of hiring staff.

These problems simply will not happen with robots. They are designed to provide services strictly according to the orders they have received and will never complain about being exhausted.

In a robot restaurant in Harbin, 20 robots are in charge of all the restaurant's various services. There are delivery robots, noodle-making robots and even entertaining robots.

When a customer enters the restaurant, the usher robot will stretch out its machine arms and say welcome.

In the United States, a bar-tending robot is designed to make cocktails according to their customers' mood.

Of course, before the intelligence of robots is developed so they can communicate, customer experience of robot-waiting might not be as good as human waiters/waitresses.

4. Customer services

Almost everyone has the experience of calling a company - be it bank, airline, or telecommunication supplier - and having to wait for someone to answer the phone while listening to the same piece of music over and over again.

There are still problems even after someone has finally answered the phone. They might not be able to answer your questions or they are simply slow to respond. All these experiences drive customers crazy.

With the growing number of clients for such companies and lack of customer service staff to handle incoming calls, robots might be the answer.

In 2008, Xiaoi robot was put into operation by China Mobile in Jiangsu. The robot is able to answer questions from clients via web pages, text messages and other channels.

The web page version of Xiaoi answers more than 40,000 clients a day, saving 80,000 yuan in salaries.

The robot is also capable of receiving voice commands. However, dealing with the countless dialects Chinese people speak is a tough task for these robots.

5. Lawyers

Most people believe that being a lawyer is a secure job because it takes years of study to become a qualified lawyer.

During the years of study, the lawyers-to-be memorize a large amount of regulations and analyze cases in order to prepare themselves with others' knowledge and experience.

However, what if there are robots that are designed to look for data, documents and regulations faster and more accurately than human beings? Moreover, what if the robots can predict the odds of winning a case before the client spends a lot of money hiring a lawyer?

There is already a robot that can replace part of a lawyer's job. In 2011, Blackstone Discovery from the United States started to provide a document analysis service to its clients. The artificial intelligence is capable of analyzing 1.5 million documents within several days. The cost of using such AI is less than one tenth of hiring a real lawyer. And lawyers make mistakes, robots don't.

6. Cleaners

Cleaning robots like Roomba and Scooba are already famous. Their intelligence in cleaning a certain area and automatically finding the right place to recharge themselves saves humans a great deal of effort.

In China, we hear sad news about street cleaners being hit by cars every year. That wouldn't be a problem if robots replaced these cleaners for their more dangerous jobs. They can be programmed to stay away from a moving car. This is also the case for replacing people for cleaning the outside walls and windows of tall buildings.

A robot designed by Harbin Institute of Technology can climb up to 70 meters within seconds and move horizontally at a speed of 10 meters a minute. It is also capable of moving on curved surfaces and gutters.

By moving up and down at high speed, the robot can replace the workload of at least four human cleaners.

7. Journalists

Yes, readers might be reading a piece of news written by robots. With a set of programs, robots are able to analyze data, pick key words and draw a conclusion. They can then combine the elements into simple words.

For data analysis - based news such as financial reports and sports reports, robots are more efficient than real journalists. And, of course, they are much lower-paid.

Associated Press started to use artificial intelligence software to write financial statement reports in July. The software can save 90 percent of writing time so AP can guarantee an immediate release of these reports. AP also uses software to analyze sports rankings and game results.

It is bad news for financial and sports journalists, but not for those who write feature stories. Robots are not able to be programmed for creative writing - yet.

8. Surgeons

The highly - respected profession of surgeon also faces replacement by robots.

A reduction in post - surgery pain is one remarkable benefit of the robotic surgeons. The machine's arms bend and rotate at greater degrees than a human wrist, which makes its movements more precise and takes pressure off the patient's body.

Robots first carried out surgery in 1993. In 2010, China approved the use of the da Vinci surgical system for operating theatres.

By the end of last year, a total of 3,079 da Vinci robots were operating around the world. China has 28 of them.

On Dec 8, Zhejiang People's Hospital used the da Vinci robot to remove a tumor from a patient from Mali. The robot has four arms and one endoscope system that can move 360 degrees inside a patient's body.

The robot was able to remove all of the malignant tissue around the tumor without destroying healthy tissue.

9. Disaster relief workers

The scene after disasters such as earthquakes, chemical explosions or floods is always dangerous and complicated. The application of robots can reduce casualties among disaster relief workers, regularly injured by falling buildings or poisonous gas releases.

The first 48 hours are the golden time for rescuing victims after a disaster. Designed to lift heavy things and seek out survivors, robots can rescue survivors much faster than humans.

China has already developed a type of robot that can work in fire, water or even after a nuclear explosion. The robot, developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University, is set to be widely used in rescue work.

10. Nurses

Nursing is hard work. With the growth of the aging population in China, nursing workers are in short supply. Robots will be able to relieve people from doing labor - and stress - intensive work.

Siasun Robot & Automation Co in Shenyang, Liaoning province, has developed a nursing machine that can tell jokes, play music, can be depended on to deliver food to a patient punctually, and will do all that is required if there is an emergency.

In the United States, experts are developing a robot that can replace humans to attend Ebola patients so that humans can avoid being infected by the virus.

(China Daily USA 01/01/2015 page9)