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Monday 01 September 2014 9:03 am  |  Updated:  Friday 07 June 2019 6:22 am

Robots are after your job in the City

By: Lynsey Barber

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And you thought you were irreplaceable?

If you're a banker or analyst in the City, watch your back. You’re about to be replaced – by a robot.

Not the walking, talking, C-3PO Star Wars kind, but by artificial intelligence, or computer programs which think for themselves – more HAL in 2001 a Space Odyssey.

Within 10 years, AI will be so advanced it will be able to draw logical human-like conclusions that will reduce the need for human input, the Telegraph reports, meaning it could perform the tasks of a banker or analyst, making them redundant.

Microsoft’s Dave Coplin said:

“I believe in Moravec’s Paradox. This states that what we think is easy, robots find really hard, and what we think it really hard, robots find easy. Complex maths equations are hard for humans but take nanoseconds for a computer, but moving around and picking things up is easy for us, while being almost impossible for a robot.”

What else would you expect from someone with the job title of chief envisioning officer?

So, the bad news; highly qualified and intensive City job would be a walk in the park for a robot because it can be run on an algorithm.

The good news: a job with skills particular to humans, being a nurse or a chef for example, is not one robots are able do better.

“People who use their hands will have jobs for life,” says Coplin.

Time to retrain?

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