VIP Class Notes (Ally)[S/R]

Vocabulary

virtual: not actual, set up digitally/electronically
ie. Ally like VR games.
ie. I can set up virtual walls so my roomba will go in the right direction.

lag: delay (mostly for electronics)
ie. I was lagging behind while my husband hurried to the front.
ie. There’s a lag in our video chat.

sketching:  pencil drawing
ie. First you have to draw a sketch, then you can finish the picture.

burnout: overwork, exhausted from work
ie. You shouldn’t work so hard or you might burn out.

tedious: dreary, repetitive, labor, boring
ie. My work as a teacher is very tedious.

accurate: correct, precise (n) accuracy
ie. He is not a very accurate shooter.

giant: big (n) big man
ie. In Elena’s picture, the soccer players looks like giants.

I don’t know why I’m doing same things at the same time.
I don’t know why I’m doing so many things at the same time.

They came here for a game./a competition.

You need to look for special sizes.

If you’re in a job performing tedious tasks, you might think that a robot could do the work instead. But perhaps we underestimate how much technology already helps with the activities that we would otherwise have to do.  And as artificial intelligence progresses we might find it replaces us in the workplace altogether.

For now, robotic technology is providing a helping hand for businesses, particularly in manufacturing, assisting humans in performing work more efficiently and sometimes more accurately. For online shopping, for example, robots have become essential in giant warehouses. They sort and move millions of objects of all different shapes and sizes, although humans are still needed to pick and distribute the goods.

The advancement of robotics in the workplace is good for some businesses; the ones who research, develop, build and use them. The British government estimates that by 2035, artificial intelligence could add around £630bn to the UK economy. But there are still tasks that robots can’t yet do, and that’s the challenge for companies such as Automata. Its co-founder, Suryansh Chandra, told the BBC that his technology will eliminate boring, repetitive jobs that humans don’t like and aren’t very good at, and also create new ones that are likely to replace them.

It seems inevitable that robots will eventually be able to do more and more of the jobs that are currently performed by humans, so should we be worried by the rise of the machines? Some experts fear hundreds of thousands of jobs could disappear as robots replace human workers. A report by the OECD suggests that 14% of jobs are “at high risk of automation” and 32% of jobs could be “radically transformed”, with the manufacturing sector at the highest risk.

But as complete automation is some way off, for now we’ll have to work side-by-side with our robot colleagues – and manage to get along with them before they learn to kick us out of the door!

Pronunciation

virus

point – OY

agency

could – cood (sounds like wood would), not cold

quarantine

hotel