Home robots can take over 40% of tasks in less than a decade

Experts predict that robots capable of doing around 39% of household chores could be available within a decade. Tasks like buying groceries will likely be the most automated, while caring for the young or elderly will be least affected by artificial intelligence (AI).

These are some of the findings from a survey of 65 AI experts in the UK and Japan, who were asked to predict the impact of robots on household chores. However, one of the report's authors warned that this increased automation could result in an "all-out assault on privacy".

Delivery robots are already a reality in Japan. Photo: AFP-JIJI / The Japan Times.

Associate Professor in AI and Society at the University of Oxford, Ekaterina Hertog, argued that if this more automated help come to fruition, could help improve gender equality, as women still carry the burden of most of the unpaid work. paid. In the UK, women do more than twice as much unpaid work as men, while in Japan, men do less than a fifth of the unpaid work done by women.

However, Hertog said the cost of the technology means the use of home robots could also lead to to “an increase in inequality in free time” – with only the richest families able to afford technology. She warned that society needed to be mindful of issues raised by homes full of smart automation, such as privacy. “I don't think we as a society are prepared to manage this widespread assault on privacy,” she said.

The specialists involved in the research, published in the journal Plos One, estimate that only 28% of the work of care, such as teaching or accompanying a child, or caring for an older relative, would be automated. On the other hand, they predict that 60% of the time spent shopping for groceries would be reduced.

However, predictions about robots taking over the housework “within the next 10 years” have been made by several decades, but the reality of a robot capable of performing domestic tasks still remains undefined. Hertog compared optimism about home robots to self-driving cars, which have been around for decades but still face technological challenges in adapting to the unpredictable environment on the road.