Because of ageing, the world needs a robotics revolution. “The question for all of us is: how can we use technology to make the quality of life better as people get older?” Says Gill Pratt, a man who had previously run a competition to find artificially intelligent, semi-autonomous robots for the Pentagon.
Ageing and robots are more closely related than you might think.
Ageing creates demand for automation in two ways. First, to prevent output from falling as more people retire, it is necessary to use machines as a replacement for those who have left the workforce or to enable ageing workers to continue to do physical labor. Second, once people have retired they create markets for new kinds of automation, including robots that help with the medical and other requirements of caring for people who can no longer look after themselves.
Automation is not the only way to deal with skills shortages, but it is one of the most important. At the moment, the robotics market is led by industrial machines. As ageing speeds up, service robots, which enable old people to live alone and help reduce loneliness, will be in great need. They will make it easier to look after people in nursing homes and enable older workers who want to stay employed to keep up with the physical demands of labor. Nowadays, therapeutic(治疗的) robots designed for children and patients with dementia (痴呆) and human-like robots that can carry out conversations on a limited range of topics have already been put into use.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, about 20,000 robots sold in 2018 could be described as helpful to the ageing. That is less than 5% of industrial robots. The number will undoubtedly grow. The question is how quickly. Mr. Pratt is optimistic. Over the past five years, he argues, there have been huge advances in artificial intelligence, enabling machines to surpass humans in certain kinds of information processing. In other words, robots perform more quickly and reliably than humans. New firms are pouring into the business. A third of robot companies are less than six years old and make service robots. The costs of research and development are coming down and investment is rising. Within a decade, Mr. Pratt supposes, robots at home will help people with simple tasks such as cooking.
But for that to happen, robots will have to perform a long list of things they cannot yet do. They cannot navigate reliably around an ordinary home, move their hands skillfully like a human, or conduct open-ended conversations. Although they can provide some physical assistance to the elderly, one robot can do only one thing, so multiple tasks would require your home to be equipped with many robots. All these suggest that, in terms of solving the problem associated with ageing, robots have a long way to go.
【小题1】Demand for automation caused by ageing exists probably because automation __.| A．keeps output steady as more people retire |
| B．helps ageing people create more physical labor |
| C．enables ageing people to look after themselves |
| D．creates a market for ageing people’s medical treatment |
| A．people are unwilling to put more money in industrial robots |
| B．people will rely more on service robots than industrial ones |
| C．robots are better than humans at information processing |
| D．service robots are developing fast in the near future |
| A．robots’ ability to move around an ordinary home is reliable now |
| B．one robot can already perform a long list of tasks at the same time |
| C．technical problems in robots may limit their wider social acceptance |
| D．the need for physically helpful robots may decrease if ageing speeds up |
| A．the cost of fixing robots is still high nowadays |
| B．robots can help older workers stay employed longer |
| C．service robots are more practical than industrial ones |
| D．human-like robots can conduct open-ended conversations |
