Robots and AI at work: the prospects for singularity

• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12124

Robots and AI at Work 205

New Technology, Work and Employment 33:3

ISSN 1468-005X

Robots and AI at work: the prospects for

singularity

Martin Upchurch

This paper seeks to address emerging debates and controversies

on the impact of robots and artificial intelligence on the world

of work. Longer term discussions of technological ‘singulari-

ty’ are considered alongside the socio- technical and economic

constraints on the application of robotics and AI. Evidence of

robot ‘take- up’ is gathered from reports of the International

Federation of Robotics and from case vignettes reported else-

where. In assessing the contemporary relationship between

singularity, robotics and AI, the article reflects briefly on the

two ‘tests’ of artificial ‘intelligence’ proposed by the pioneer

computer scientist Alan Turing, and comments on the efficacy

of his ‘tests’ in contemporary applications. The paper contin-

ues by examining aspects of public policy and concludes that

technological singularity is far from imminent.

Keywords: Alan Turing, artificial intelligence (AI),

computerisation, digitalisation, new technology, robots.

A recent report by the World Economic Forum (WEF, 2017) predicted a sea change in the

net effect on job totals as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly

introduced into the workplace. In the past, job displacement by new forms of computer-

ised technology was compensated for by job growth in other related areas. The WEF report

suggests that this trend may be reversing, so that the net effect of robotics and AI will be to

reduce rather than increase jobs. Moreover, there also appears a lack of governance of the

impact, in so far as ‘AI development has occurred in the absence of almost any regulatory

environment’ (WEF, 2017 p 50). The report follows academic commentary which also of-

fers a prognosis of net job loss. In terms of calculating risk, Frey and Osborne (2013) sug-

gest that almost half of all occupations and their related jobs in the United States may be

under threat of disappearance in the next two decades. Ford (2015: xii) predicts that work

will be transformed in a way ‘defined by a fundamental shift in the relationship between

workers and machines…machines themselves are turning into workers, and the line be-

tween capital and labour is blurring as never before’. More recent studies have been more

cautious in their predictions. Evidence assembled by the consultants PwC from a variety

of academic and government sources, suggests that whilst being disruptive to labour mar-

kets ‘any job losses from automation are likely to be broadly offset in the long run by new

jobs created as a result of the larger and wealthier economy made possible by these new

technologies. We do not believe, contrary to some predictions, that automation will lead to

mass technological unemployment by the 2030s any more than it has done in the decades

since the digital revolution began’. (PwC, 2018). In terms of occupation, the evidence

Martin Upchurch (m.upchurch@mdx.ac.uk) is professor of International Employment Relations, in the

Middlesex University, London, UK.

© 2018 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.