047 – The robots are coming. Are you ready?

A study predicts that all human tasks could be automated in the next 30 years. And that all human jobs might be replaced within the next 100 years or so. Holy crap! What will we do when the robots take over? A.I. is coming. The robots are coming. But are we ready?

In this Real English conversations podcast from Better at English, Lori and her American friend Will talk about their questions and concerns about the rise of A.I. (Artificial intelligence) and the automation of human labor. You can find the full transcript in my archive of English conversation transcripts for language learners.

Additional resources and supplementary material

Humans need not apply
Video about how automation and A.I. will affect the job market for humans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

Robots will beat humans at every task

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/this-is-when-robots-will-start-beating-humans-at-every-task-ae5ecd71-5e8e-44ba-87cd-a962c2aa99c2

Traffic death statistics

https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html

Dirty, Dirty robots.

Funny (but still disturbing) video about A.I. from comedian Lee Camp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfxP6ZyNtw

Link to original Yale / Oxford study about A.I.

This is for learners of academic English. People in the videos about A.I. summarize findings from this study. This is the actual academic study for comparison.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf

Elon musk on the Joe Rogan podcast, talking about A.I.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3fv8gl6NE

Elon Musk’s talk at SXSW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Osn1gMNtw

Ted talk with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nt3edWLgIg

Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BChxQHyFIOI&t=1487s

TED talk by Peter Haas A robot designer who is afraid of robots

The Real Reason to be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRzBk_KuIaM

How frightened should be be of A.I.?

Article in the New Yorker, free, with full text and audio so you can read along as you listen.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-frightened-should-we-be-of-ai

Video about delivery robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujzjZuhE92g

8 thoughts on “047 – The robots are coming. Are you ready?”

  1. A very nice voice you have Lori. And is clear to understand, at less for me, a Spanish speaking male.
    I’m from Argentina, more precisely living in a city named Paraná, 500 kms far north from our capital city, Buenos Aires.
    I’ve been at the States in 1973, attending Engineer Officer’s Advanced Course at Fort Belvoir, Va. Latter on, a couple of months performing On The Job Training (OJT) with the USMC at Camp Pendleton.
    Please receive my sincere appreciation for your work.

    1. Thank you very much, Federico! I’m glad you’re able to understand the podcasts. I’m currently thinking a lot about pronunciation problems, so if there are any specific sounds you have trouble with, let me know. I don’t have much experience teaching people whose first language is Spanish. Have a great day!

  2. Hello Lori, thank you for your valuable work here in your website, I really appreciate your efforts
    That was a pretty interesting episode I am listening right now!

    Hope learn to much more, Congratulations
    Have a good day!

    Jose

    1. Hi again, Jose…I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to comment. Nice feedback like yours is what keeps me going :-) I’m working on the next episode now…it should be done in a couple of days. Cheers!

  3. Thanks a lot for the episode, liked it very much! It is great to have supplementary materials as well, to work more on topical vocabulary.

    1. Hi Jose, you are very welcome! I am glad you’re enjoying the extra material! In the next episode, I’m even including some extra activities to try in a downloadable pdf. So stay tuned! :-)

  4. This podcast was exactly what I was looking for. Real conversation on really interesting topics.
    Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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