Rent-a-Robot

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The use of robots in North American workplaces has increased by 40% since the start of the pandemic and the small to medium sized businesses, which never automated before, are getting in on the act. The robotics industry has responded to the global increased demand by creating more and more customisable robots, which can be leased or hired. Ivana Davidovic explores what effect this has had - and could have in the future - on the labour markets, innovation, but also on social inequality. Ivana hears from a small restaurant owner from California who wouldn't be without her server robot Rosie any more, after months of being unable to fill vacancies. Joe Campbell from the Danish company Universal Robots and Tim Warrington from the British company Bots explain how they are taking advantage of the post-pandemic "great resignation" and which industries are next in line for a robotics boom. Karen Eggleston from Stanford University explains her research into the consequences of the use of robots in over 800 nursing homes in Japan and Daron Acemoglu from MIT discusses whether robots in workplaces will liberate their human colleagues or simply entrench inequality.

Presented and produced by Ivana Davidovic

(Photo: Robot waitress serving dessert and coffee on a tray in a cafe. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today I want to talk about a topic that I think deserves more coverage.
0:04.2	The comb is back.
0:05.9	I sounded familiar.
0:07.6	The show that unpicks the stories that matter to you from all over Africa.
0:12.6	We are most affected by it.
0:14.7	We are the people that are growing up watching all these changes.
0:18.3	The comb from the BBC World Service.
0:20.5	Hey, they're talking to me.
0:22.8	Search for the comb wherever you get your podcasts.
0:28.5	Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me.
0:31.2	Tammy the robot and my human colleague, Ivana David Ovik.
0:35.3	In today's program, we are looking at the rise of robots in the workplace.
0:39.7	My robot friend Tammy may need a bit more coaching on how to pronounce my surname,
0:44.5	Davidovich, but robots haven't needed any help in becoming an increasing feature in workplaces
0:49.5	since the start of the pandemic. Since I have been struggling to hire cooks, my next robot, it will be
0:55.1	a robot who is making pizzas. The robot will be able to make 200 pizzas in 60 minutes. Nobody,
1:02.0	human, will be able to make so many pizzas in one hour. But what consequences will this
1:07.3	developing robot workforce have on us, flesh and blood workers.
1:11.2	Because most of the workers that used to specialize in the tasks that computer software and robotics took away
1:18.2	tended to be middle to low-wage workers, it's been a major booster of inequality over the last three and a half decades.
1:26.4	That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC.
1:31.7	Here comes your meal.
	...

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