There were three presentations on robotisation, its effects on the world of work and the changes this implies for education.
Juan Valle Lisboa, a graduate in Biochemistry, PhD in Biological Sciences and lecturer at the Centre for Basic Research at the Faculty of Psychology, presented "Men and machines: between competition and cooperation in the cognitive niche", in which he set out some keys to avoid "competitive exclusion" between humans and artificial intelligence, transferring a figure from biology. He summarised that "the secret of machines is deep statistics and lots of data", and considered that the problem with artificial intelligence is that "it is reaching a limit", in the sense that "our brain is much more complex than a neural network". He said that humans must find what "makes us distinctive". "What is better for a child, to study art or to study medicine? I think it's easier to make a machine that can diagnose a person than to make a good script for a soap opera on Netflix, to give an example. Along these lines of complementarity, he said that artificial intelligence can be a specialist and humans can be generalists, "in the sense of having enough flexibility to cover the problems that we have to cover". He said that humans "have the upper hand" to "design artificial intelligences so that we can cooperate and not compete", and pointed out, quoting Luciano Floridi, that "artificial intelligence is possible, but it is very improbable," and it is necessary to discuss "concrete things" beforehand, such as the problem of people who are left without work due to automation. Valeria Fratocchi, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Montevideo, presented the results of a 2016 study that assessed which jobs are at high risk of being replaced by machines in Uruguay. In total, 54% of jobs are at risk of disappearing with automation in the next 15 to 20 years; in the primary sector the percentage rises to 80%, in industry 75% of jobs would be affected, 70% in commerce and 38% in services. He listed some "protective factors" of jobs: the ability to perceive and manipulate objects that require dexterity and motor skills; the creative and problem-solving capacity and the possibility of creating value-added proposals; and social intelligence. However, he also pointed out some problems; for example, he compared how the work of a nurse, whose job has a 0% chance of being replaceable, is valued today with that of a bank employee, whose tasks have a 98% chance of being replaced by machines: the nurse earns around 27,000 pesos, while the bank employee earns 110,000.
For his part, Gustavo de Elorza, an Argentinean with a degree in Educational Technology, argued that it is necessary to transform the "rote, repetitive and traditional" educational model in order to meet the new needs of the 21st century. In particular, he emphasised the disruption generated by information and communication technologies and connectivity. He said that the focus should be on a model for the development of skills and competences, based on a "neuro, techno, pedagogical, cognitive and digital" model.
Source: La Diaria
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