I have based this short lesson on a TED talks video. These videos are immensely popular, short and contain no profanity. The subject of this video is the jobs we might lose to machines because of machine learning technology. The questions can help the students understand this interesting topic.

The video doesn’t come with a transcript, but students can turn on subtitles, remind them that if they turn on subtitles, to at least put them in English. I had a class choose subtitles in their own language and it kind of defeated the point!

Here is the link: The jobs we’ll lose to machines — and the ones we won’t | Anthony Goldbloom

The answers are given below.

Questions for the video:

1. What’s his niece’s name? What are her parents’ job?
2. What did the study from Oxford university conclude?
3. What’s the name of the technology?
4. When did machine learning start? What tasks did they do?
5. What algorithms did Kaggle create? Were they successful?
6. Why is machine learning so successful?
7. What can we do that machines can’t?
8. What did Percy Spencer invent, why was that important?
9. What jobs will humans still be able to do in the future?
10. Are the little girls’ parents’ jobs at risk from automation? Why?
11. What’s the presenter’s advice for the girl?

Extra Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think your job/future job could be done by a machine?
2. If you could invent something, what would you invent?
3. Do you think robots will think like people in the future?
4. What jobs do you think machines will not replace?
5. If machines can do our job, do you think machines will also play sports? Why, why not?

Answers to the video:

1. Her name is Yahli. Her mother is a doctor and her father is a lawyer. Great jobs, power-couple for sure!
2. In 2013 researchers in the University of Oxford did a study on the future of work and it concluded that almost 1 in every 2 jobs were in high risk of being automated by machines.
3. The name of the technology is “Machine Learning”.
4. Machine learning started in the early 90’s. It started with simple tasks such as assessing credit risk in loan applications and sorting the mail.
5. Kaggle challenged its community to create an algorithm to grade high-school essays and diagnose eye disease. Yes, they were successful.
6. Machines can read millions of essays and see millions of eyes in minutes. They are great at frequent, high volume tasks.
7. Machines have a challenging time tackling novel situations. They can’t handle things they haven’t seen before.
8. Percy Spencer invented the microwave oven and he is an example of how humans can make connections and create new things without. When it’s all said and done, they have trouble inventing things.
9. Jobs that involve tackling novel situations for example marketing campaigns that grab attention, business strategies that finds gaps in the market.
10. They are at risk because her mother is a doctor and her job’s responsibilities will mostly be taken over by machines as well as her father’s.
11. He very wisely said: “Let every day bring you a new challenge.”

Downloadable Questions and Answers to the video:

There you have it folks, for more on this topic of podcast and videos click here!