Hello. This is 6 Minute English. I’m Rob. |
And joining me to do this is Sam. |
Hello. |
In this programme, we’re talking about robots. |
Robots can perform many tasks, |
but they’re now being introduced in social care to operate as carers, to look after the sick and elderly. |
We’ll be discussing the positive and negative issues around this. |
But first, let’s set you a question to answer, Sam. Are you ready for this? |
Fire away. |
Do you know in which year was the first commercial robot built? |
Was it in … a) 1944, b) 1954, or c) 1964? |
They’re not a brand new invention, so I’ll go for 1954. |
OK, well I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong, at the end of the programme. |
So, let’s talk more about robots, and specifically ones that are designed to care for people. |
Traditionally, it’s humans working as nurses or carers who take care of elderly people |
- those people who are too old or too unwell to look after themselves. |
But finding enough carers to look after people is a problem – there are more people needing care than there are people who can help. |
And recently in the UK, the government announced a £34 million fund to help develop robots to look after us in our later years. |
Well, robot carers are being developed but can they really learn enough empathy to take care of the elderly and unwell? |
Empathy is the ability to understand how someone feels by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation. |
Well, let’s hear about one of these new robots now, called Pepper. |
Abbey Hearn-Nagaf is a research assistant at the University of Bedfordshire. |
She spoke to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme and explained how Pepper is first introduced to someone in a care home… |
We just bring the robot to their room. |
And we talk about what Pepper can’t do, which is important so we can’t provide physical assistance in any way. |
It does have hands, it can wave... |
when you ask for privacy, it does turn around and sort of cover its eyes with its hands but that’s the most it does. |
It doesn’t grip anything, it doesn’t move anything because we’re more interested to see how it works as a companion - having something there to talk to, to converse with, to interact with. |
So, Abbey described how the robot is introduced to someone. |
She was keen to point out that this robot has limitations – things it can’t do. |
It can wave or turn round when a person needs privacy – to be private – but it can’t provide physical assistance. |
This means it can’t help someone by touching or feeling them. |
But that’s OK, Abbey says. |
This robot is designed to be a companion |
– someone who is with you to keep you company - a friend in other words that you can converse or talk with. |
Well, having a companion is a good way to stop people getting lonely, but surely a human is better for that |
– surely they understand you better than a robot ever can? |
Well, innovation means that robots are becoming cleverer over time. |
And as we’ve mentioned, in the UK alone there is a growing elderly population and more than 100,000 care assistant vacancies. |
Who is going to do all the work? |
I think we should hear from Dr Sarah Woodin, a health researcher in independent living from Leeds University, |
who also spoke to the BBC’s You and Yours programme. |
She seems more realistic about the introduction of robot carers. |
I think there are problems if we consider robots as replacement for people. |
We know that money is tight |
- if robots become mass-produced there could be large institutions where people might be housed and abandoned to robots ... |
I do think questions of ethics need to come into the growth and jobs agenda as well because sometimes they’re treated very separately. |
OK, so Sarah Woodin suggests that when money is tight – meaning there is only just enough |
- making robots in large quantities – or mass-produced – might be a cheaper option than using humans. |
And she says people might be abandoned to robots. |
Yes, abandoned means left alone in a place, usually forever. |
So she says it might be possible that someone ends up being forgotten and only having a robot to care for them. |
So is this right, ethically? |
Yes well, she mentions ethics – that’s what is morally right – and that needs to be considered as part of the jobs agenda. |
So, we shouldn’t just consider what jobs vacancies need filling but who and how it should be done. |
And earlier I asked you, Sam, did you know in which year was the first commercial robot built? |
And you said? |
I said 1954. |
Well you didn’t need a robot to help you there because you are right. |
Well done! |
Now let’s do something a robot can’t do yet, and that’s recap the vocabulary we’ve highlighted today, starting with empathy. |
Empathy is the ability to understand how someone feels by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation. |
Physical assistance describes helping someone by touching them. |
We also mention a companion – that’s someone who is with you and keeps you company. |
Our next word was tight – in the context of money, when money is tight it means there is not enough. |
Abandoned means left alone in a place, usually forever. |
And finally, we discussed the word ethics – we hear a lot about business ethics or medical ethics – and it means the study of what is morally right. |
OK, thank you, Sam. |
Well, we’ve managed to get through 6 Minute English without the aid of a robot. |
That’s all for now but please join us again soon. |
Goodbye! |
Bye bye everyone! |