UNIVERISDAD DE COSTA RICA

Escuela de Lenguas Modernas

LM-1240
Activity on
Better than Humans: Why Robots will—And Must—Take our Jobs

In trios do the following activities. Remember the idea is to elaborate as much as

possible.

I. Comment and analyze these quotations taken from the reading.

Each group will be responsible for one quotation.

1. “We have preconceptions about how an intelligent robot should look and act,
and these can blind us to what is already happening around us. To demand that
artificial intelligence be humanlike is the same flawed logic as demanding that
artificial flying be birdlike.”

2. “It is as if those established robots, with their batch-mode programming, are the
mainframe computers of the robot world, and Baxter is the first PC robot.”

3. “And yet for more complicated chores, we still tend to believe computers and
robots can’t be trusted. That’s why we’ve been slow to acknowledge how they’ve
mastered some conceptual routines, in some cases even surpassing their mastery
of physical routines.”

4. “We are doing, and are sometimes paid for doing, a million new activities that
would have dazzled and shocked the farmers of 1850. These new
accomplishments are not merely chores that were difficult before. Rather they are
dreams that are created chiefly by the capabilities of the machines that can do
them.”

5. “The one thing humans can do that robots can’t (at least for a long while) is to
decide what it is that humans want to do. This is not a trivial trick; our desires are
inspired by our previous inventions, making this a circular question.”

6. “Everyone will have access to a personal robot, but simply owning one will not
guarantee success. Rather, success will go to those who innovate in the
organization, optimization, and customization of the process of getting work done
with bots and machines.”

7. “This is not a race against the machines. If we race against them, we lose. This
is a race with the machines.”
 II. Complete the table below according to each quadrant’s explanation
and with examples of jobs.

Explanation Examples of jobs

Quadrant A Jobs humans do but robots will Weave cotton clothes
do better Fly an airplane
X-ray analysis

Quadrant B Jobs that humans can´t do but Search on internet

robots can Job that requires degrees of
precision, control, and
unwavering attention
Quadrant C Make video calls
New jobs created by automation Drive a robot in Mars
Be a video game designer
Quadrant D Find, make and complete new
The jobs that only humans can things to do
do

III. In your groups watch these videos and be ready to answer these
question
a. What does the robot do? What features does it have?
b. What quadrant would it belong to?
c. How human-like is it?
d. How would you feel having a robot like this one around you?

1. How Baxter Robot Works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onBcXxnLGBc

2. IBM Watson: How It Works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p98G5oWUHU0

3. Honda ASIMO 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS23BQiF4h0

4. Pepper the ‘emotional’ robot visits the FT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSGxyU8i2hs
5. Meet Nao, the robot that’s changing the lives of autistic children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ko8O-4sINw
6. Sophia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWlL4KjIP4M&t=5s
https://youtu.be/Bg_tJvCA8zw

7. Grace: Sophia’s sister

https://youtu.be/oJFveca-GKQ