Britain’s science minister has said advances in AI and robotics will replace human jobs, starting with roles in warehouses and factories, as the government announced plans to cut red tape for robots and defense tech companies.
Patrick Vallance said technological advances are creating a “whole new area” for robots to work in. “What’s really changing now is the combination of AI and robotics. It’s opening up a whole new area, particularly in things like humanoid robotics. And that will increase productivity, it will replace human jobs,” he told the Guardian.
Lord Vallance spoke as a government entity helping to deploy new technologies in the UK and announced robots and defense as new areas to be supported.
He said factories and warehouses, already at the forefront of robot deployment, will undergo further change as a result of the new generation of humanoid robots.
“Activities that require movement around warehouses and factories, or things that can be roboticized, will be roboticized. I think they will be roboticized in many cases and, therefore, the nature of those jobs will change. That’s going to be the first wave,” he said.
Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that AI “could usher in a new era of mass unemployment”.
Speaking at his annual Mansion House speech on Thursday, Khan said artificial intelligence could destroy vast numbers of jobs in London unless ministers act to help replace the jobs taken away by the technology.
Asked to comment on Khan’s speech, Vallance said robots would take away “repetitive” tasks. “You eliminate some of the things that are less interesting, repetitive things that can be done in another way,” he said.
Vallance, who was previously the government’s chief scientific adviser, said the example of robotics assisting in surgery shows how technology can increase jobs.
“Robotics is not displacing surgeons, it is fundamentally improving the way those surgeons work and allowing things to be done with greater precision,” he said.
The government announced on Friday that the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) is expanding its scope to defense technology and robotics with the aim of reducing red tape for companies operating in those sectors.
The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology is also releasing £52 million for new centers to drive the adoption of robotics in British businesses. These hubs will provide advice to companies regarding the use of robots and live demonstrations. It states, “The goal of the RIO will be to streamline overlapping requirements to bring products to market safer, but more quickly, to improve lives and grow our economy.”
The department said autonomous drones could benefit from the broader RIO remit. Such technology may require separate approvals for aviation, data protection and sector-specific security regulations, an expensive process that could take several months.
Vallance was speaking during a visit to UK-based robotics company Humanoid, which has already deployed its prototypes at a factory run by German industrial group Siemens.
Adam Kelsall, head of product management at Humanoid, said the company welcomes “anything that gets us out into the real world and testing (the robot) early”.
