How Replaceable Are You? Newly-Developed Calculator Predicts Likelihood of Robots Stealing Your Job in the Future

By Peter R - 18 Jun '15 13:54PM
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How replaceable do you think you are?  Worried of losing your job to a mindless computer or robot? Simply consult NPR's calculator.

The calculator is based on research by University of Oxford researchers which found that 47 percent of the jobs in the US are at risk of being automated in the next 20 years.

"While computerization has been historically confined to routine tasks involving explicit rule-based activities algorithms for big data are now rapidly entering domains reliant upon pattern recognition and can readily substitute for labor in a wide range of non-routine cognitive tasks. In addition, advanced robots are gaining enhanced senses and dexterity, allowing them to perform a broader scope of manual tasks," Oxford researchers wrote in their 2013 study.

The NPR calculator looks at how much creativity, negotiation, navigation into small spaces and helping others, is involved in a job to determine risk of being replaced.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers have the smallest risk from over 700 occupations, of losing their jobs to robots. At 0.3 percent, the job involves high level of cleverness, negotiation and helping others. Telemarketers are at the highest risk of losing their jobs.

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