L&E 2024

Unit 1 Small Talk


A: How would you feel if you were welcomed by robot staff?

B: You mean at a hotel, like in this picture?

A: Yeah … or anywhere.

B: To be honest, I might be a little confused.  Personally, I would like to be welcomed warmly by human staff, not robots.  How about you?

A: I think it’s good to be served by robot staff.  We’d be able to check in quickly and efficiently.  But I can understand your confusion, too.  For example, I wouldn’t like to be greeted only by robots at a luxury resort hotel.

B: I see.  It depends on the situation.  I guess we would have a wider variety of choices for how we want to be served by having AI or robots.  So, how do you think AI or robots will change our lives and society?

A: Well, I think AI and robots may give us more freedom of choice.  Take an automatic driving system, for example.  If you owned a self-driving car, you could choose to drive by yourself or let AI drive for you.  In terms of the impact on our society, if those systems become fully-developed and all the necessary laws get set up, a day might come when robots drive down the streets and deliver packages to people’s homes.

B: Right.  That way, companies could assign humans to do some other skilled tasks.  It may change our view of work.