SOME of us feel anxiety over robots taking over our jobs. Yes, they can take over repetitive chores, but let’s view them as helpers to release us from boring repetitive tasks so we can devote more time to creative, administrative, and managerial tasks. Robots don’t do well in an unruly environment (like yours, so you are safe). Whatever it is, robots are here to stay with us.
Let’s Meet Some of the Lovable Robots at the 2020 CES in Las Vegas:
Robots fall into education, emotional support and service groups.
• Emy teaches English to children aged 3-9 years and speaks like a child.
• Tombot assists children with autism and people with PTSD.
• Loro attaches to a patient bedside and wheelchair.
• Jennie comforts seniors with dementia.
• Bomy helps people with dementia by providing daily home care with alarms and brain exercise.
• Guardian loads cargo; so does Aitheon with a robotic arm for warehouse jobs.
• Cruzr teaches you how to dance; Reachy can play tic-tac-toe.
The Food Industry:
The food industry has chores that are physical and repetitive – a natural fit for robots. At the latest Consumer Electronics Show in las Vegas, robot baristas made and served coffee. Another robot named “Flippy” can flip 2,000 burgers a day without overtime pay, pension, or labor union conflicts.
Healthcare Industry:
Have you noticed your doctor busy keypunching and updating your computerized health records? This task takes away patient interaction with you, the patient. Robots can take over these tasks to allow your doctor practice medicine. Johns Hopkins Medicine uses robots to perform surgeries for kidney ailments and pancreatic cancer. Surgical robots can make smaller precise incisions and perform laser eye surgery with better accuracy than humans.
Financial Impact on Medicare:
Smart robots can take notes, deliver patient information to cut down wasted spending in health care. We are all concerned about the survival of Medicare when we retire. Well, robots can come to the rescue by eliminating waste, cutting spending and reducing budget deficits to help Medicare survive.
From Factory to Business and Social Environment:
Robots are no longer limited to factory jobs in warehouses. They have grown out auto assembly plants into business and social settings. Robots are here now and will take a more prominent place in our society. It’s a scene to behold when we watched robots perform tasks, play ping-pong and even interact with us at the recent CES in Las Vegas.
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Victor Santos Sy graduated Cum Laude from UE with a BBA and from Indiana State University with an MBA. Vic worked with SyCip, Gorres, Velayo (SGV – Andersen Consulting) and Ernst & Young before establishing Sy Accountancy Corporation.
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He retired after 50 years of defending taxpayers audited by the IRS, EDD, BOE and other governmental agencies. He published a book on “How to Avoid or Survive IRS Audits.” Readers may email tax questions to [email protected].
