THE Philippines’s Sarah Connor, relax: robots are still far from being Terminators. And they would still need humans, according to Science and Technology Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina L. Guevara.
“Robots are not creative, [and] they cannot solve problems, [so] they need humans,” Guevara told the BusinessMirror. “What you command [the robot] is the only thing it can do, so it does not replace us [humans].”
It is understandable that Guevara, an engineer, doesn’t share the queasy feeling of many on the rise of robotics since the Philippines has yet to feel its impact.
According to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (Unctad), “Much of the discussion on the economic effects of the use of robots has concentrated on the effects in developed countries.”
This view is shared by the International Data Corp. (IDC), which said its data revealed China is the single largest and the fastest-growing robotics market in the world, and will account for more than 30 percent of the worldwide robotics spending in 2020.
“Manufacturing continues to dominate China spending in robotics, with discrete and process manufacturing accounting for over 50 percent of spending in 2016,” IDC said.
Nonetheless, the Unctad said with the march toward greater industrialization, countries will have to account for the rapidly increasing spread of new automation technologies and artificial intelligence in the form of robots.
“Optimists state that any adverse effects will be short-lived and that robots may help overcome slowdowns in productivity growth and increase worker income and well-being,” the 2016 Unctad Policy Brief 50 said. “Pessimists point to the rapid pace and increasing scope of new technological breakthroughs, and state that, due to their microprocessors, robots may require only a small number of better-skilled workers for their operation, rather than the requirement for large numbers of low-skilled workers that complemented earlier technological breakthroughs, such as the steam engine.”
Age of robots
ROBOTS appear to have permeated the daily grind of people’s lives. Think of Internet of Things (IoT), the interconnection of electronic devices, as one.
Prior to the IoT, however, robotics or automation has been animating economies ever since.
The Robot Institute of America (1979) defines a robot as “a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.”
According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 8373, robots require a certain “degree of autonomy”, which is in context of the “ability to perform intended tasks based on current state and sensing, without human intervention.”
Although the Philippine socioeconomic sphere is largely dominated by the growth contributions coming from the service sector, the entry of robots has been progressively utilized in agriculture, retail trade, manufacturing, transportation, administration and construction industries, among many others, in the country.
In a McKinsey & Company Manila report released last February, Suraj Moraje said the effects of automation in the Philippines showed a significant stance.
The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) forecasts that 48 percent of the employees’ activity, which is equivalent to 18.2 million jobs, could be automated.
“Almost half of the activities that people are paid to do can be automated using currently available technologies,” the report said. “Filipino innovators can establish competitive advantage and reap superior rewards by selectively adopting these technologies.”
The report added that jobs related in the agriculture sectors, which amount to six million, take the largest share of “automatable” work in the Philippines. The retail (with 3.4 million jobs) and manufacturing (with 2.4 million jobs) sectors with large numbers of automatable work are also included.
Pinoy inventions
RESEARCHES on robotics and inventions of robots by students, professionals and enthusiasts also take an innovative and relevant space in the robotics sector in the Philippines.
These Filipino-invented robots include farmer robots and a bomb-disposal robot both created in 2013, a massaging robot designed for the elderly in 2012, and a gas-leak detector robot made in 2010, among many others.
As the country adapts to the rapid development of robotics and automation today, the fears of policy makers and workers that these technologies would increase unemployment may not seem to be the case.
“The effects [of robots replacing humans] are not that alarming as claimed by some critics,” University of Santo Tomas Electronics Engineering (UST-EE) Chairman Angelo R. dela Cruz told the BusinessMirror. “People always adapt to changes.”
Dela Cruz said in an e-mail interview the situation may turn out positively in terms of economic growth since industries would have a predictable output on both quantity and quality.
Bigger scale
ON a bigger scale, the drive of robotics and automation being added into the industries comes from humans’ “nature to invent new tools to make life easier”, according to an engineering expert.
Laurence A. Gan Lim, chairman of the Mechanical Engineering department at the De La Salle University (DLSU), said that with the nature of humans, the use of robots would only increase.
“This [use of robots] is something that cannot be stopped unless it is possible to tell or order everyone in the world to stop improving technology or reject new technology,” he told the BusinessMirror in an online interview.
The requirement to provide high-quality products and services with high-skilled workers at the same time is also one.
“Innovation is part of economic growth, especially in the Philippines,” dela Cruz said. “As the complexity of computers increases, machine[s] can now provide better output quality and quantity than traditional methods.”
Benefits, snags
GLOBALLY, robots have been touted as another advantageous technology.
The IDC foresees 35 percent of leading organizations in logistics, health, utilities and resources will explore the utilization of robots by 2019.
IDC has identified 10 major robotics trends that will present opportunities to information technology (IT) leaders in the near future.
These include robot as a service or RaaS, implementation of chief robotics officer, evolving competitive landscape in robotics, robotics talent crunch, execution of robotics-specific regulations, software-defined robots, collaborative robots, intelligent RoboNet, robotics growth outside factory industries and robotics for e-commerce.
“Robotics will continue to accelerate innovation, and we encourage end-user companies to embrace and assess how robotics can sharpen their company’s competitive edge,” Jing Bing Zhang, research director of Worldwide Robotics and Asia Pacific Manufacturing Insights-IDC Asia-Pacific, was quoted in a statement as saying.
The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing robotics market led by China, Korea and Japan, and will account for more than two-thirds of worldwide robotics spending throughout 2016 to 2020, reaching over 70 percent by 2020, IDC said.
“Manufacturing continues to dominate Asia-Pacific spending in robotics, with discrete and process manufacturing accounting for 33 percent and 28 percent, respectively in 2016. This is followed by resources, consumer and health-care industries in terms of overall robotics spending.”
Robots work on a 24/7 basis and produce consistent high-quality outputs. However, their automated operations have their own share of drawbacks, from being priced at highly expensive costs to displacing manual and repetitive labor workers.
“Machines cannot fabricate emotions, creativity and imagination, [and] sensory perception is very difficult to be replicated by a machine,” dela Cruz said.
Good thing
REY Untal of the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said the addition of robots to the work force could only mean good things.
“The robots, AI [artificial intelligence] and automation can handle the repetitive processes faster and even more efficiently so this leaves our work force to handle the more complex tasks in the workflow,” the IBPAP president told the BusinessMirror. “[The robots can] potentially lead the Philippine IT-BPM industry to move up the value chain with high-value jobs, and effectively higher revenue per capita in fields such as software development, animation and health information services.”
For IDC Philippines, robotics is driving the “current wave” of industry transformation and upgrade, which leads to opportunities on operational agility and customer experience both for developed and emerging countries.
“With robotics, companies in the Philippines stand to gain on several fronts, on automated flexibility, especially for manufacturing, and allowing for reduced lot sizes and increased product customization,” IDC Philippines Business Operations Head Jubert Alberto told the BusinessMirror in an online interview.
Alberto said industrial robots, commercial-service robots, and consumer-service robots are being deployed in sectors of electronics, health care, retail, hospitality, logistics, agriculture, utility and, for some countries, the government sector.
The Asia-Pacific region takes the fastest growth in the robotics market, with China, Korea and Japan as the leading countries that will account for more than two-thirds of worldwide robotics spending until 2020, Alberto said.
“The Philippines is not that big yet on spending, but we have been seeing spending from manufacturing, resources, consumer and health-care industries,” he said.
Skills improvement
AS the integration and utilization of robots in many industries have brought a mix of benefits and risks, workers claim their skills are primarily challenged from the continuous demand in the robotics sector after threats of their possible unemployment are thrown in the shade.
“Workers should focus on developing higher-level abilities, [and] this will require tremendous support from the government. Education will only become more relevant,” Gan Lim said.
Dela Cruz, on the other hand, also suggested workers to immerse themselves to jobs that are more complex, which require critical and infinite decisions.
Changes in the job market happen as frequent as they are, but reconciling curriculum (education) against jobs skills would always be challenging for workers and industry players in any sector, according to Untal.
“Skills improvement [of workers] is essential, [and] this is important for any individual to stay competitive on the global market regardless of what sector he or she is in,” Untal added.
For Arjay B. Panes, 29, who works in a business-process outsourcing (BPO) company in Pasay City, employees should value their jobs and develop more their capabilities in work so options would be available for them once they get displaced by robots in the work force.
Machines’ time
ACCORDING to Rodolfo A. Salalima, head of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), there’s nothing to fear with the rise of robotics.
“[On machines replacing all people and people being left unemployed] my take here is no, and all people will not lose their employment [to robots],” he said during the launch of the government’s three turnkey information and communication technology (ICT) projects in May.
He emphasized, however, the importance of machines, especially their capability to multiply the fruits of labor. And when labor is multiplied, there is growth that is capable of innovation and creating employment for the people, Salalima said.
He, nonetheless, acknowledged the advancement of robotics and AI in the country.
Jobs that require workers in performing “value assessment” cannot just be shortly replaced by robots, Salalima explained.
These jobs exhibit people’s passion and compassion at the same time, he added.
“While our future lies in the robots and AI, the world will be safe for as long as the high-based machines are good maker to people, who will direct machines to do what is good and not what is criminal.”
Nonetheless, Salalima remains smug that not all people will lose their jobs to robots or machineries even in “machines’ time”.
Opportunities, gains
ACCORDING to Guevara, there is only one threat posed by robotics.
“If you couple the opportunity [of] the robotics, the AI with training, it’s not a threat, [instead] it’s an opportunity,” she said. “We have the work force that can do it [robotics]. There is just no opportunity because companies need to invest [on robots].”
The transition from human workforce to machines and robots is inevitable, but the question of when this change would happen remains, Dela Cruz said.
He added that there would be a gradual transition of machines replacing workforce that requires lesser decision making and not too critical in nature.
According to Untal, robots taking over the workforce in industries would still depend on the technology readiness of a certain region and ability to manage effectively.
“One challenge that we will need to face together is how to take advantage of our already excellent talent pool and invest more heavily in their [workers’] education, and upskilling to meet the demand of technologies,” he explained. “We just need to be aware of what new jobs will be created and how we can ready our workforce to take on these jobs.”
The loss of jobs and business opportunities as the adoption of robotics continues to take place in Philippine industries may remain to be concerning, however, the advantages of robotics outweigh the present concerns, at least for Alberto.
“Both in the short term and long run, the companies need to start assessing or examining how robotics can be applied to their operations and be able to exploit the opportunities it brings to their businesses,” he said.
At the end of it all, Guevara said humans still control these robots as people are capable of programming and making these machines perform many things.
Indeed, the future may not be as grim as the Terminator film paints robotics. Nonetheless, having a Sarah Connor in our sleeves is better than having no one at all.
Image credits: Valeriy Kachaev | Dreamstime
1 comment
The problem few human has ability to solve problem. Robot need only few geniuse to maintain and develop them