Gigaom AI Minute – March 25

Transcript

At Gigaom.com/quiz, there is a ten question test that scores how likely any given job is to be replaced by automation, be it by a computer or a robot. I'm going to spend ten AI Minutes going through the questions one at a time, and why they're on the test.

Question #5: Are there non-repetitive physical requirements of the job?

You might score this one a 0, less likely to be automated, if the answer is yes, if there are non-repetitive physical requirements. That might be something like a dance instructor; obviously, it's non-repetitive, it's physical, and it's not something that would be easy to automate. You might, on the other hand, say no there aren't any non-repetitive physical requirements, such as a programmer or a cashier. There are basic physical requirements to type and so forth, but they're repetitive. And then you might make a score in the middle, some non-repetitive physical requirements would be something like, a security guard.

The reason this is a good indicator of automation should be straightforward: repetitive physical requirements are things that we can automate, but non-repetitive ones are very difficult to automate.