Band 9 Essay Sample | Eventually All Jobs Will Be Done by Robots

Some people believe that eventually all jobs will be done by artificially intelligent robots.
What is your opinion?

Band 9 essay sample

Some jobs are already done by robots. However, I do not believe that all jobs will eventually be performed by such devices for several reasons. Robots are expensive and incapable of doing certain jobs that require special skills. Government regulations will also prevent their large scale deployment.

If a man can do a job as well as a robot, I see no justification for replacing the man with a robot. Robots are suitable for certain jobs, but they have plenty of limitations too. To begin with, the cost of operating and maintaining robots is extremely high. This is a great reason for employers to continue to prefer humans over robots. For example, the cost of installing a robot in a Khartoum-based supermarket was around one million U.S. dollars. The robot will require decades to deliver services worth its cost. Furthermore, in order to keep these devices working continuously, companies will have to employ skilled operators. This will further increase their cost of operation and make human workers indispensable in the labour market.

There are also certain jobs that require the human touch. For instance, robots cannot do a good job in sectors like medicine, engineering or social service because of their inability to understand human feelings, needs and wants. Unemployment is another factor that discourages the deployment of robots on a large scale. If robots are deployed in all sectors people will lose their jobs. As we already know, unemployment has an adverse effect on the society. To prevent this situation, the government may also bring about legislation that requires companies to employ humans instead of robots.

To sum up, robots may be getting smarter; however, in my opinion, they will never completely replace humans in the workplace. Of course, there are sectors where only robots can be employed. In other sectors, humans will continue to be employed.