As kids, who didn’t sit, salivating in front of the television, watching The Jetsons live their best futuristic lives? The ‘60s cartoon, which subsequently aired all through the ‘90s, provided the blueprint for how we envisioned the future: filled with cool gadgets and loads of robots doing all the heavy lifting. So it’s no surprise that several items from the animated series actually manifested.
Enter 2017: where once-theoretical jokes about robots taking our jobs incites fear instead of laughter. If you’ve ever wondered whether or not you could lose your career to a pile of metal and wires with more intelligence than you, there’s now a website for that.
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According to Fortune, two technologists, Mubashar Iqba and Dimitar Raykov, developed a website that can predict the future. Using a 2013 study, which estimated that 47% of jobs would be run by robots by 2033, the two delved into the actual numbers. They then incorporated numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Alas, willrobotstakemyjob.com was born.
As Fortune noted, reporters are kind of okay (hey, how could we not first look at ourselves?), though there were several jobs considered to be high-risk. The “automation risk level" for cashiers is 97%, which is not so surprising when you consider that self-checkout option at the drugstore and the fact that Amazon has already taken massive strides in this direction. Another profession high up on the list? Jobs involving cars: truck drivers, taxis etc. We have those self-driving vehicles to thank for that.
It’s worth noting that some of the numbers may be off, since a study from four years ago provides the foundation and we all know how quickly the tech world changes. Regardless, it's pretty frightening. If only we'd been exposed to the plot of Wall-E a bit sooner?