The future where robots, machines and other artificial intelligence replace hard-working humans have arrived. A Japanese insurance company sets to let go 34 employees and replace them with the Watson Explorer AI of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
According to The Guardian, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance invested ¥200 million ($1.73 million) to install IBM's Watson Explorer. The artificial intelligence will replace 34 office workers whose jobs were to interview and record date of its customers.
The employees are going to be laid off in March when the Watson Explorer AI arrives and takes over their jobs. The Japanese company has estimated that they can save ¥140 million ($1.2 million) per year and increase their efficiency by 30 percent.
The artificial intelligence can easily do what humans can in record time. IBM's Watson Explorer has the ability to read thousands of medical certificates and histories while knowing all of the little details like length of hospital stay.
It should be noted that Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is not the first Japanese company to use IBM's Watson technology. Dai-Ichi Life Insurance is already using artificial intelligence to assess payments while Japan Post Insurance will likely adopt the same procedure.
Japan is known for its expertise in terms of technology, and coupled with their declining population, it is expected that robots will take over half of the country's jobs in 2035, per Engadget. Researchers from the Nomura Research Institute found out about it late last year.
The usage of artificial intelligence is a big leap for technology but Stephen Hawking warned everyone about the dangers of it. During his speech at the launch of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) in Cambridge University, he noted that AI can be used as weapons.
"Alongside the benefits, AI will also bring dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many," Hawking said, via the official website of Cambridge.
