“Whether making us happy technology, is up to us” – Future Zone

Whether self-propelled cars, robots as household or Erntehelfer when fitters on an assembly line or humanoid bots in the elderly. Robots are increasingly active in all life and production areas. The technology is available and it is also no longer be stopped, according to the tenor of an expert discussion on the future life of the machine, which was held at the Technology Forum in Alpbach on Thursday.

How will the relationship between man and machine designs , lie to us, said Matthias Scheutz (futurezone interview), who is doing research at the Tuft Universy in the US to intelligent machines. “How does the future development will depend on where we draw the line.”

Gradual Development

The technique will gradually come, Roland Siegwart said, Professor of Autonomous Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich (futurezone interview). “We will not even notice.” One should not always ask the question whether robots are smarter than humans, so the researchers: “We should ask what they can do for us.”

It was still difficult for artificial systems that to understand the world. Intelligent machines would work in structured environments, but they are not yet ready to take in complex situations, such as traffic congestion, decisions, Siegwart.

If it is a matter to capture large amounts of data are already superior equipment people, said Ingolf Wittmann, technical director at IBM. But people could recognize about whether a smile is genuine. “The computer can not, not even in the foreseeable future,” the IBM executive: “But computers can support us in many processes, the connection is the important thing..”

” relocation of jobs “

The fact that machines that displace people from the labor market, should not necessarily be so Wittmann. People who evolve and use computers for their own purposes would continue to have a job. “Those who remain standing, but slide down.”

Also, Peter Post, director of research German industrial 4.0 specialists Festo, does not believe that robots humans are pushing from the labor market: “It is be no destruction, but a transfer of jobs. By optimizing methods will boost productivity, but that does not mean that fewer people will be working. “

The human being remains an important part of production processes. But he must be brought to new skill needs, so post. Festo has implemented approximately in a new production facility at the company headquarters in German Esslingen a learning factory, where individual work steps could be implemented application-. “People there will be as part of the process always.”

conflicts

automation processes in industry 4.0 would offer the possibility of the production back to the US to relocate or Europe, said computer scientist Scheutz. But he can see especially in human-like robots that are active as in the elderly, the risk of misunderstandings and emotional injuries. “Older people will want to talk to the robot, it is conflict situations will arise.” We must work to make robot socially intelligent, so Scheutz.

discussion about social consequences

The robotics experts warned a discussion about the way society deals with the intelligent machines a. “We must not blindly ahead without taking account of their social implications technology developments,” said head of research at Festo Post.

This discussion should now be done, demanded Scheutz. It is difficult to stop technology, but you can regulate them: “Whether it makes us happy this technology, is up to us.”