ChatGPT is here. Will machine intelligence threaten people's jobs? Universal Robots sees a world of collaboration between robots and humans

ChatGPT continues to gain popularity around the world, and its latest version, ChatGPT-4, has recently reached a climax, with an amazing iteration speed in just a few months. As major technology companies rush into the market to seize the new heights of AI innovation, people are amazed at the rapid progress of technology, and at the same time, a sense of anxiety begins to spread: ChatGPT works faster than humans, does it work better than humans, and is cheaper than manual labor, so does that mean that many jobs will soon be replaced by intelligent tools?

In fact, people's thinking about the relationship between machine intelligence and humans did not start with ChatGPT, and the anxiety about being "replaced" is not limited to the field of AI. Long before the emergence of ChatGPT, various machine intelligence and automation tools have been widely used in multiple fields. In this process, people have continued to pay attention to the relationship between machines and humans from a broader perspective. In many years of industrial practice, collaborative robot manufacturer Universal Robots (hereinafter referred to as "Universal Robots") clearly sees that machine intelligence can be used for our own benefit and become a good "colleague" of humans, helping humans to make their work easier. Collaborative robots can interact with employees at close range and take over dangerous, difficult, boring, and intensive tasks. This can not only physically ensure the safety of workers and reduce the risk of occupational diseases and injuries, but also allow workers to focus on more valuable work, liberate people's creativity, and help workers gain better career prospects and spiritual achievements.

Ensure a sense of security and reduce risks related to the working environment, contact surface of the processed object, and ergonomics

The health risks faced by workers in the workplace first come from working environments such as dust, chemical reagents, and high pressure . For example, in production links such as grinding and sandblasting, the working environment is full of dust and noise. Take grinding as an example. When cleaning burrs for parts such as automobile engine cylinder heads, collaborative robots can be used instead of human hands. The floating grinding head can be used to complete the deburring of the rocker arm surface and edges, so that workers are free from inhaling large amounts of dust; another example is that disinfection has become the norm in the workplace in the past few years, and the use of collaborative robots for disinfection operations can not only help workers quickly disinfect large areas, but also protect employees from the risk of long-term exposure to chemical reagents; in addition, by integrating technologies such as VR into the ecosystem, the application scenarios of collaborative robots can be flexibly and fully expanded. For example, instead of workers working in high-risk environments such as high-voltage power rooms and nuclear power facilities, employees only need to remotely control them.

In addition to the surrounding environment, the contact between workers and the objects being processed may also pose risks such as cuts, burns, and electric shocks. The edges of many parts are very sharp, and workers are easily cut by sharp parts during the processing, turning, and grinding of these parts. For example, in manual welding tasks, workers often face risks such as burns, electric shocks, and impaired vision. Using collaborative robots to handle these tasks can effectively reduce such risks. So when collaborative robots and workers work in close proximity, does such contact itself pose an additional risk? The answer is no. Universal Robots' patented technology ensures that collaborative robots limit their strength when in contact with workers. Users can also program Universal Robots collaborative robots to slow down when someone enters the collaborative robot's work area and resume full speed when the person leaves.

Even if the risks of the environment and the objects being processed are eliminated, employees still face another health problem, that is, many actions are inevitably not in line with ergonomic principles. Take the waterproof gasket on the car door during automobile manufacturing as an example. When installing the gasket, the operator needs to use a force measuring roller to continuously apply pressure, which can easily cause arm joint injuries and even musculoskeletal diseases in the long run. Introducing collaborative robots into this operation process can not only achieve a repeatability accuracy of up to plus or minus 0.05 mm, but also protect the health of the operators. Compared with traditional industrial robots , collaborative robots are very flexible and lightweight, so they can move along complex paths in a confined space and avoid protruding rivets on the car door to ensure that the gasket is completely sealed to prevent water leakage.

Create a sense of achievement, help workers transform into high-skilled talents, and seize new job opportunities

After gaining a sense of physical security, employees have higher-level needs: a sense of spiritual achievement. After collaborative robots take over tedious and dangerous basic tasks, workers can focus on higher-value tasks and seek new knowledge and skills. Data shows that while machine intelligence replaces basic tasks, it also creates many new jobs, catalyzing the demand for highly skilled personnel. Data from the World Economic Forum [information source: Guangming.com] predicts that by 2025, the development of automation will create 97 million new jobs. At the same time, data shows that in recent years, the job-seeking ratio of high-skilled talents in China has remained above 2 for a long time [information source: People's Daily Online], which means that one technical and skilled talent corresponds to at least two positions, and the degree of popularity can be seen.

Obviously, as the pace of automation continues to accelerate, keeping up with the trend and updating one's skills will greatly benefit the career development of practitioners. With advanced collaborative robots and a series of educational and training initiatives such as the "Universal Robot Academy", Universal Robots hopes to help practitioners achieve "knowledge updates" and skill upgrades, and firmly grasp the opportunities of new positions in the future.

Currently, about 150,000 people around the world have mastered the skills needed to work with UR collaborative robots through the UR Academy training courses. The training modules of the UR Academy cover a range of collaborative robot programming and operation skills, including collaborative robot scripts, industrial communications and interface operations. In China, UR has established UR Academy training centers in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and Taiwan, and at the same time deployed the UR Academy authorized training center project. Currently, the authorized training centers cover key cities in the Greater Bay Area and many strategic regions of the Yangtze River Delta, such as Dongguan and Suzhou, so that trainees can participate in professional collaborative robot training at their doorstep.

Universal Robots' vision is to create a world where humans and robots work together, rather than having humans work like robots. With this in mind, Universal Robots hopes to help the entire industry cultivate more collaborative robot experts, empower more young Chinese people to upgrade to senior engineers and technicians, and prepare talent reserves for China's manufacturing industry to continue to move towards the high end of the industrial chain.

About Universal Robots

Universal Robots is committed to reinventing the way the world works with its world-class robotics platform.

Since launching the world's first commercial collaborative robot in 2008, Universal Robots has developed a series of product portfolios to meet different working radius and load requirements, including UR3e, UR5e, UR10e, UR16e and UR20. Each model can be seamlessly matched with the rich end effectors, software, accessories and application kits in the UR+ ecosystem, so that it can be widely used in various industries and can be easily adjusted and deployed in different tasks.

Universal Robots is a subsidiary of Teradyne, headquartered in Odense, Denmark, with branches/offices in markets such as China, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Romania, Turkey, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Mexico.

Universal Robots has sold more than 50,000 collaborative robots worldwide.