New book explores how AI really changes the way we work

One of the earliest predictions about artificial intelligence was that robots would steal jobs from people, particularly for seemingly monotonous and menial tasks. Case in point: Flippy 2, the "autonomous robotic kitchen assistant" developed by Miso Robotics to turn hamburgers as they cook. The restaurant chain CaliBurger is testing Flippy at various locations. But what the robot is best at doing isn't what it was designed to do. "[A CaliBurger franchise owner] said, 'Flippy isn't actually as good as I might have liked at flipping hamburgers, but it's pretty good at pulling baskets of French fries out when they're done,'" said Thomas Davenport, a digital fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.