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Are Humans Becoming Obsolete? A Look at the Rise of the Robot workforce The robots are coming, and there’s not much anyone can do about it. Technological advancement has always caused some level of anxiety in the workforce, but artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation are quickly making human labor obsolete in many fields. People who work with their hands or with their minds will struggle to make ends meet as robots increasingly take over these jobs, and even those who specialize in creative fields will find themselves competing with ever-smarter computers that churn out novels, songs, movies, and more without breaking a sweat. Robots taking jobs Robots are already creating massive job disruption—and it’s only going to get worse. The World Economic Forum predicts that up to 5 million jobs will be lost to automation by 2020, with an additional 7.1 million people in developed economies losing their jobs due to an inability to retrain or re-skill as a result of automation and AI technologies. Elon Musk's visión In a recent interview, Elon Musk gave some amazing insight into his vision for life on Earth and in space. I think we'll be able to exceed human abilities in a relatively short period of time, said Musk. The technology entrepreneur behind PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX spoke with CNBC's Squawk Alley about jobs, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and colonizing Mars. Here are some highlights from their conversation It would seem like there would be two outcomes: one is that we would be so dependent on AI that we can't imagine living without it, and therefore ascribe it consciousness and treat it very well; or two, that AI will reach such a level of intelligence that humans will not be able to compete, he told CNBC. We always have to remember that our competition is not the Chinese students who went to Stanford and Berkeley—our competition is AI. He also believes that we need to make sure AI doesn't turn against us. He explained that if AI reaches human levels of intelligence then it's going to do whatever you tell it to do. If you tell it to turn itself off, then it will turn itself off... but if you don't tell it to turn itself off and you say 'compute as much as possible,' then [it] could build something new and bad. Artificial intelligence and machine learning Artificial intelligence has already made our lives much easier in so many ways. I, for one, would have no idea how to function without my smartphone’s speech-to-text transcription! But artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming an integral part of our everyday lives; in fact, it’s poised to revolutionize virtually every industry known to man. So are we headed toward a future where people are truly rendered obsolete by their advanced creations? That remains to be seen...   The rise of robots in China According to a report by CNBC, China plans to use 1.8 million industrial robots by 2020. The country is projected to have 1 million robots installed by 2018. As it stands, 200,000 industrial robots are in operation there today; and after accounting for things like expansion of factories, etc., that figure is expected to reach 400,000 in 2020. Technological unemployment Technology has been replacing human labor for hundreds (if not thousands) of years, whether it was brute strength with inventions like waterwheels or steam engines, or brainpower with machines like calculators and computers. In recent times, robots have been set to replace jobs as diverse as call center workers and fast food employees. It’s hard to escape media coverage of how artificial intelligence will cause widespread unemployment in one country or another—whether it be through truck drivers in Japan or fast food cooks here in America. Will artificial intelligence result in the end of work? Section: How will we stay relevant in an age with AI? AI will be able to take over jobs currently held by humans, as well as invent new jobs we can’t even imagine. But here’s how we can stay relevant in a world with AI. Even though computers are great at performing tasks and solving problems quickly, they don’t understand human emotion—we can teach them to be human-like but they still lack empathy and they aren’t capable of understanding unstructured data yet.