The impact of the introduction of industrial robots on workplace injury risk and mortality

In the 19th century, the Luddites protested against the introduction of new technology into the wool and cotton industries, concerned that this would mean a reduction in the quality of their work, less need for their skill and a lower pay. Nowadays, luddite is used to refer to someone who dislikes technology. In modern society, there are similar concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and what its introduction and evolution means for the human workforce. Despite these fears of past and present society, there is no doubt that there are significant benefits associated with the introduction of new technologies. For example, industrial robots play an important role in reducing workplace injury and mortality risk. Associate Professor Masahiro Yoshida, Department of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Japan has a background in economics and is interested in the socio-economic drivers and impacts of injuries in the workplace. While the nationwide injury rate improved before the Great Recession, it subsequently began to stagnate. Given accelerated investment in industrial robots, Yoshida found this puzzling and, through his work in this area, found that most industrial robots are utilised in innately safe sectors rather than in more risky sectors, suggesting a profit-seeking reasoning behind investment in robots rather than the prioritisation of workplace safety. He also found that these sectors tend to have a higher dependency on immigrants. This led Yoshida to explore the relationship between the dependency on immigration and the progress of robot adoption across industries.