Opinion: Let’s make a deal with our robot overlords

A demonstration of a mobile robot Wastie, created by the students of Faculty of Engineering Mahidol University to help with the care of hospitalised Covid-19 patients by reducing the contact between the patients and hospital personnel, at Golden Jubilee Medical Center in Nakhon Pathom province, west of Bangkok, Thailand. Robots run by algorithms will do a lot of jobs, replacing the human workers who in many cases will have trained them. People will probably welcome the brave new world, particularly if it’s more hygienic. — AP

If you worry that robots will render human workers obsolete, the coronavirus pandemic offers ample reason to worry more: Surely companies will take the opportunity to replace demanding, imperfect people with machines or artificial intelligence wherever possible.

That said, I’m hoping the crisis will also create an opportunity to negotiate better terms with our algorithmic overlords.