You should stop worrying about robots taking your job

Two 40-year old robots returned to the big screen this year: handy mechanic droid R2-D2 of the Star Wars Rebel Alliance and the terrifying Terminator. The latter has been used by many headline writers as a metaphor for the perceived risk that automation will destroy human jobs. But in 2020, we will see that the real future of work lies with R2-D2, whose strength is his ability to work alongside humans and enhance their performance. Next year will be the year of augmentation technology. Our fears about automation come down to three factors: machines will execute tasks more efficiently; machine learning will enable artificial intelligence (AI) to make complex decisions more effectively; and technology companies will sell software and algorithms to replace slow and distractible people with fast and focused machines.