How Prevalent Are Robots in 2020?

If the predictions of numerous sci-fi films like I, Robot and The Terminator are anything to go by, the world is heading towards a future in which robots are ubiquitous and used for everything from fighting wars to doing household chores. What many people didn't expect, though, would be the gradual and almost imperceptible way that robots would creep into everyday use. Robots are beginning to take over, and many are blissfully unaware that it is happening. In 2020, there are more robots around than you may think.

Manufacturing of Goods

One of the biggest reasons that there has been so much focus on robotics as a way to advance society is in the fact that machines will bring greater efficiency to a number of industries. In the manufacturing of goods, developers have always strived to make things simpler and more cost-effective. So instead of employing a number of people to develop a product, it can make more sense to get a robot to do the work. In addition to that, the machine has less margin for error and never suffers from fatigue. Robots are useful at different stages of production, from packaging food all the way through to delivery.

Robots in the manufacturing industry are generally operated by humans and are used to do mundane and repetitive tasks such as packaging items. The plastic and chemical products sector is seeing an increase in the number of robots used, with 20,000 installed in 2018. The top manufacturing industry for robot use is automotive, where more than 30,000 robots are being added each year. This sector uses a greater number of robots than anywhere else and accounts for approximately 30 percent of the total number of robots in the world.

Financial Sectors

There are plenty of robots being used for systems online that make life simpler for humans. AI is efficient and faster at scouring thousands of pages on the internet for information, deals, and price fluctuations. They are often used for comparison tools, working off a complex set of algorithms to make recommendations for users.

Robots have proven to be particularly useful in assisting people in trading, and this is becoming the norm now in the forex industry. Traders are getting robots to do a lot of the legwork for them, through what is referred to as auto-trading. Instead of keeping an eye on the fluctuating currency markets themselves, users can now choose one of the best forex robots to do the hard work for them.

Agriculture

Bringing in the use of robots could be seen as the natural progression of agriculture, an industry that has evolved greatly over the years through the introduction of new technology. Just as tractors and combine harvesters have made the cultivation of land a much simpler process than ever before, AI machines will improve production further. Some tractors are now being operated using self-guided GPS, while machines are being used for other jobs such as spraying and weed removal.

Military

Perhaps the scariest use of robots and the one that has been the premise of numerous sci-fi movies over the years is in the military. The general belief in fiction is that robots will eventually take over and wage war on the people controlling them. However, at the present time they are proving to be useful in doing jobs that are too dangerous for people. This ranges from bomb disposal robots to drones that can fly over enemy territory.

Games

One of the most interesting things that robots have been tasked with has been learning how to play and master complex games. The best-known application of this has been in chess, where robots have long surpassed even the world's greatest grand masters. It all began when Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in New York City in 1997.

Since then, the chess-playing AI has become even more advanced and has been able to self-teach without any human input. Now, AI robots are learning and succeeding at other games such as poker. The poker-playing robot, Pluribus, recently beat some of the best players on the planet in a six-handed game.

Robots are already here, and they are making a lot of industries better. Humans need to get used to working alongside the machines, otherwise there is a risk that they will no longer be needed. If this happens, the planet could have a Matrix-like situation on its hands.