BBC 6分钟英语 Can robots care for us?

English

from BBC, learning English. Hello. This is six minute English.

I'm rob and joining me to do this is Sam.

Hello. In this program, we're talking about robots.

Robots can perform many tasks, but they're now being introduced in social care, to

operators careers to look after the sick and elderly.

We'll be discussing the positive and negative issues around this.

But 1st let's set you a question to answer.

Sam, are you ready for this fire away?

Do you know in which year was the 1st commercial robot built?

Was it in a 1944? Be 1954, or see, 1964?

They're not brand new inventions, so I'll go for 1954.

Okay? well, I'll tell you with your right or wrong at the end of the program.

So let's talk more about robots, and specifically ones that are designed to care for people.

Traditionally its humans working as nurses or care as who take care of elderly people, those people who are too old or too unwell to look after themselves.

But finding enough care is 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 £34000000 fund to help develop robots to look after us in our later years.

Well, robot carriers 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 persons situation.

Well, let's hear about one of those new robots now called Pepper Abbey.

Hern nagaph is a research assistant at the University of Bedfordshire.

She spoke to BBC radio fours you and yours program and explained how Pepper is 1st introduced to someone in a care home.

We just bring the robot to their room, and we talk about what Papa can't do, which is important, so he can't provide physical assistance in any way.

It does have hands. It can wave, and when you ask for privacy, it does turn around and sort of cover its eyes with its hands, but that's 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 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 on 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, abby 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 all the time, and as we've mentioned, in the UK alone, there is a growing elderly population and more than 100000 care assistant vacancies.

Who's going to do all the work?

I think we should hear from Doctor Sarah Wooden, a health researcher in independent living from Leads University who also spoke to the bbc's You and Yours program.

She seems more realistic about the introduction of robot cares.

I think there are problems if we consider robots as replacement for people.

We know that money is tight.

If robots become mass produced, they 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 would in suggest 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, abandon 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 job vacances need filling, but who and how it should be done.

And early I asked you, sam, did you know in which year was the 1st commercial robot built?

And you said, I said, 1954.

Well, you didn't need a robot to help you there, because you are, right?

Yeah, 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 mentioned 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's not enough.

Abandoned means left alone in a place, usually forever.

And finally, we discuss the word ethics.

We hear a loss about business ethics or medical ethics, and it means the study of what is morally right.

Okay, thank you, sam. Well, we've managed to get through 6 min English without the aid of a robot.

That's all for now. But please join us again soon.

Good Bye, bye, everyone.

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