For the first time, a robot has performed eye surgery on humans. It's success hints that in the near future robots will be performing operations that are too delicate for a human to do manually. Each of the six participants in the study needed a membrane removed from their retina to improve vision. This procedure involves cutting out a collection of cells that have clumped together, distorting what the person can see. Twelve people in total had the surgery, with half of them conducted using a robot.

A priest said he felt'completely relaxed' as surgeons performed revolutionary surgery inside his eye with the aid of a robot. The patient, Father William Beaver, 70, an associate priest at St Mary the Virgin Church in Oxford, said his eyesight was returning following the operation, having previously experienced distorted vision similar to'looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground'. The procedure - the world's first robotic operation - was carried out by surgeons at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, who welcomed its success and said it could revolutionise the way such conditions are treated. Father Beaver told BBC Breakfast: 'I was completely relaxed and completely comfortable because I could see that all the technology was in place and all the goodwill was in place and all the skills were in place. Professor Robert MacLaren says scientists'have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future' 'Because, you see, the key is the precision.

This will be the definitive forum on the shape of the next economy. Be part of the discussion and understand how the technological revolution will shape the future of work and business. "Could a machine do your job?" ask Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi in a recent McKinsey Quarterly article, "Where Machines Could Replace Humans and Where They Can't Yet." "As automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics play an increasingly great role in everyday life, their potential effect on the workplace has, unsurprisingly, become a major focus of research and public concern. The discussion tends toward a Manichean guessing game: which jobs will or won't be replaced by machines? In fact, as our research has begun to show, the story is more nuanced. While automation will eliminate very few occupations entirely in the next decade, it will affect portions of almost all jobs to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the type of work they entail."

If we let machines put us out of work, it will be because of a failure of imagination and the will to make a better future. "Could a machine do your job?" ask Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi in a recent McKinsey Quarterly article, "Where Machines Could Replace Humans and Where They Can't Yet." "As automation technologies such as machine learning and robotics play an increasingly great role in everyday life, their potential effect on the workplace has, unsurprisingly, become a major focus of research and public concern. The discussion tends toward a Manichean guessing game: which jobs will or won't be replaced by machines? In fact, as our research has begun to show, the story is more nuanced. While automation will eliminate very few occupations entirely in the next decade, it will affect portions of almost all jobs to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the type of work they entail."