The trick to saving human factory jobs might be teaming up with the machines

[Karlston]

The trick to saving human factory jobs might be teaming up with the machines

“It’s all about making humans better rather than replacing them."

Enlarge / "Oh brave new industry, that has such bots in't!"

Javier Pierini / Getty

The Matrix. Skynet. Roy Batty. Anyone who has watched a science-fiction movie has seen a scenario where factions of humans and machines find themselves locked in mortal combat.

 

Here in 2019, though, we're doing what we can to disrupt that vision and steer the course away from human-machine antagonism and more toward cooperation. Instead of robot servants plotting to overthrow their meatbag masters, we're trying to use machines to augment human skills and strengths—especially in the context of manufacturing, which is the place where we're most likely to see robots. The rapid push to update manufacturing methods to more smartly integrate human with machine isn't necessarily as big a deal as the original Industrial Revolution, but it is a big enough deal that analysts have coined a snappy phrase for what we're going through: "Industry 4.0."

 

Sometimes the man-machine enhancements are physical, and sometimes they’re mental. Sometimes it's a Venn diagram that includes both aspects, as a skilled human worker collaborates with robotics and AI to complete a task.

 

We spoke yesterday about the security of the industrial Internet of Things with John Spooner, senior IoT analyst at 451 Research in Boston, and he also had a fair amount to say on the more positive concept of humans and machines teaming up to build things better. “Artificial intelligence and augmented humans includes a whole range of stuff, from implants that improve your memory and vision to exoskeletons that would help you ambulate or lift,” he told us.

Electric eyes on the prize

On the physical side of the equation, consider the example of Ford Motor Company, which has rolled out to its global factories wearable exoskeletons developed by Ekso Bionics. The 9.5-pound EksoVest adjusts to fit workers ranging in height from 5 feet even to 6-feet 4-inches (about 1.5 to 1.9 meters), and it provides lift assistance of 5 pounds to 15 pounds per arm (or about 2 to 7 kilograms). That doesn't sound significant, but it adds up to a tremendous boost when a worker may be performing the same repetitive lifting motion thousands and thousands of times every day.

 

On the cognitive side, Nvidia Corp. and the American College of Radiology in April announced a collaboration that leverages Nvidia’s Clara AI toolkit to speed the analysis of masses of radiological images.

 

Nvidia Clara comprises libraries for data and image processing, AI model processing, and visualization. The AI toolkit includes libraries for data annotation, model training, model adaptation, model federation, and large-scale deployment. The new tools allow the ACR’s 38,000 radiologists to customize their own algorithms to spot symptoms in a mass of images.

 

Spooner elaborates on the process: “In order to use AI effectively, you have to learn how to use it, then have to build it into your processes... How do we train radiologists to be more efficient at reading ten X-rays instead of a hundred?” he asked. “Somebody still needs to look at the image and say, ‘That looks like a tumor, a torn meniscus, thinning of the cartilage.’" Software is getting better at identifying and diagnosing conditions, but it's not there yet—we still need human doctors looking over things.

 

Still, a human-machine diagnostician team can make a pretty powerful combination. “Say somebody comes into the ER with broken ribs from a car accident,” Spooner continued. “The medical team needs to find the most pressing problem... But with this technology, an hour or two later, AI may come back to say, ‘Once those ribs are taken care of, you might want to check these other couple spots to biopsy.’ The software tools may identify subtle signs of life-threatening conditions totally outside the immediate condition the human observer is focused on."

 

Unlike the seeming inevitability of fully autonomous cars and trucks on the road, it seems less likely that AI diagnosticians will completely negate the role of human physicians. “The idea that AI is going to replace a doctor is ludicrous,” Spooner said, “but what it can do is provide in many cases very good recommendations or decision support to make an esoteric assessment very quickly. It can take in ginormous amounts of data and give probabilities... Combined with someone who has 20 years of experience, you’re going to get the right decision. That’s where it’s really powerful.”

"The idea that AI is going to replace a doctor is ludicrous."

 

NextAR from Progea is a good example of a human-machine interface that integrates enhancement to human perception as well as physicality. Tapping into applications for wearable augmented reality devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens, SmartGlass Epson Moverio, or Google Glass, operators on factory floors can work with real-time information transmitted to and from Progea’s Movicon supervision servers. By taking advantage of a whole bunch of interlinked bits of technology, supervisors can direct intelligent machines’ behavior directly, improving efficiency, productivity, and safety.

All about the bottom line

The technologies involved may be cutting-edge, but the decisions about when to deploy a human or machine follow the same basic economic principles that have been in place since the first Industrial Revolution. “Automation has been an ongoing process that continues for a really long time,” said Spooner. “It’s evolutionary and ongoing."

Enlarge / Artist's impression of human/machine teaming.

Don Klumpp / Getty

But there may be holdouts, or folks who prefer to think of things strictly in terms of "robots versus humans" or "robots are taking our jobs." It doesn't have to be this way—there's a compassionate way for humans and machines to team up in a manufacturing context and have the result be more fulfilling work rather than unemployment for the human. “It’s all about making humans better rather than replacing them," Spooner explained. "It’s expensive creating a machine that can do what a person can do, but it’s not nearly as expensive to enhance a person’s ability to do a job one way or another. The question becomes: How do you make John better at doing his job, whether he’s writing a research report or replacing a transmission?”

 

There will be holdouts, and there will also probably be manufacturing companies that look at things strictly in terms of dollars and make mistakes, but if we're careful and do things right, we'll all benefit. “There are going to be people who don’t want to do it and people who are going to replace those holdouts," Spooner said. "Yes, it will take time, and it’s not easy. But in a sense, people had to be taught to learn a spreadsheet or word processor—those things are augmentative tools as well, and we take them for granted now as support for human work.”

 

What’s more, Spooner sees the rise of the machines as a way of identifying precisely what humans do best. “Tesla found it’s very hard to install seats using smart machines,” he said. “It went back to having people do it because they can bend and shift in ways that robots can’t. What we’re talking about is making it easier and less wearing to work longer, and making it easier to project costs and demand... Are you going to get to the point where a futuristic system builds a car in 3D? Maybe someday, but not for the short term. Instead of autonomous technology, the ‘better together’ aspect is what these companies are shooting for.”

 

 

 

Source: The trick to saving human factory jobs might be teaming up with the machines (Ars Technica)

[steven36]

It was one advantage i always had over normal  workers that i am  technically inclined when it comes to working on machines . You have normal workers were automation have been taking there jobs since the 1990s and then they have to have other works to make sure the machines can do there job. It means you need to learn to do something besides just manual labor .

[lolsee2]

The industrial age has never produced a result of truly replacing all humans however empowering a smaller group of humans to accomplish things that required many more people previously.

All of these pieces of technology are affectively force multipliers. Often times enabling someone without high level skill sets to still produce effective results, examples being CNC machines and 3-D printers.

[steven36]

The bad part of automation in places like the USA  the warehouse industry  and retail sales industry are some of the only jobs left  now that they start making most stuff overseas ,  Most manufacturing jobs left in the USA already put in high tech automation  machines, it's the only way you can make a profit  if you stay state side.   I worked around bots and on bots since the 90s . The rich man going kill jobs no matter what  by any means. Advancement like this don't help no one out but Corporate Slime Balls . Once automation hits  Asia and other places they will have another problem unemployment .

 

A machine took my moms job  years ago in the early 90s she had go back to school to do something else .  Soon places like Amazon instead  of having 100s warehouse workers in each warehouse will only have a small team. How do you save factory jobs when there is hardly any left to begin with  ? All that stuff Trump doing to try to bring jobs to USA is not going help in the long run and China knows all they  have to do is wait  tell the USA  elects the another corporate shill president who sides with the  Big Tech industry  and  the Manufacturing Industry who don't do nothing but make good speeches . 

 

The truth be known  most companies in the USA  don't make nothing no more they have plants that are overseas that make it for them that are  owned by someone else and all they do is sell it, they contract all there stuff they made out  to plants overseas   .  All you have to do is draw up a blue print  of how you want it made  and they pay someone overseas almost nothing to make it for them .They just kept there name from when they really made stuff. Rich people are the problem and we going end up having to have a civil war to fix it if the economy don't collapse 1st and fix it like it did in the Great Depression .

 

Progea makes software  i know people who went to collage that are computer illiterate who work behind computers , they  learn how to do one thing on a computer that there job requires  and that and browsing the web  is all they know . That the problem with the Technology Industry its full of dumb people , then you have young adults who are skilled with computers who went to collage for it,  that doing something else because  there not many jobs as the media lets on to work on computers  and older people have all the jobs.