Blake Pruitt 1

Annotated Bibliography

What is the future impact of AI on the manufacturing industry in the United States?

Blake Pruitt

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1103

October 22, 2019

 Blake Pruitt 2

Anandan, Tanya M. “Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on the Robotics Industry.” Control

Engineering, vol. 65, no. 4, CFE Media LLC, Apr. 2018, pp. 28–31.

https://search.proquest.com/docview/2131580991/fulltext/FCED7E540F634441PQ/1?acc

ountid=14605. Accessed 14 Oct. 2019.

This academic journal brings in new technology and procedures towards AI development,

as well as connects them to a societal shift in thinking; shifting from individual topics of

computer science and robots to an encompassing topic of AI. This source is used to

inform of the new trends and research that is coming to light about the development of AI

not only from Goldberg’s Autolab but from society itself. Google, Amazon, Windows,

but a few examples of companies that have created a form of AI. They make small

assistants using voice commands. A simple idea of relaying information from speech to

words this assistant can understand is very complex though. This speech to text action is

but a milestone for creating improved AI. New developments come in various shapes and

sizes, even what may seem small, is huge in scale. Adapting technology to a neural

network, a program that imitates how human brains function, was another huge step to

developing technology that learns. Imitation is king right now when using Virtual Reality

(VR) combined with neural networks, AI can be taught hands-on tasks, like moving

boxes. The problem with this type of learning right now though is that computers are still

dumb, so complex tasks are out of the question due to the limits in software development.

Even though robots may develop and be able to do most of the same tasks we can do, as

far as the eye can see now, AI will still not be able to comprehend topics or think like an

actual human. This source mostly relies on the works of others like Rodney Brooks, a

researcher who had been working on AI since 1956, Goldberg, an engineer from the
 Blake Pruitt 3

University of California Berkeley, and Pieter Abbeel, who is a professor for electrical

engineering and computer sciences at the University of California Berkeley. The reliance

on these three builds the credibility of the research journal due to their amount of

experience in the field, but Tanya herself also has over 25 years of marketing specialized

in the technical and industrial fields, giving this paper a good amount of credibility. I

believe that Anandan wrote this paper to inform people of the recent advances in AI and

her observations of how society is changing to better grasp what is truly going on with

the robotics field. I think the intended audience is those interested in robotics and

technology, specifically the upcoming age, because of the inclusion of the home AI

technology that has been developed and newer concepts like VR, but this may also

include other researchers since robots and AI is a rapidly changing field, needing constant

update to keep up. I think this source is the middle ground of the three I’ve selected,

because it gets across the upcoming technology and talks about the adaptability of society

to new ideas, but doesn’t include the overwhelming amount of statistics and information

that is included in my number one source in this bibliography. This journal would fit into

my paper through the examples of upcoming technology and a backing opinion and

analysis of how AI may make its impact soon. I feel that it does not clearly address the

impact AI has on employment, but it clearly supports the idea that AI isn’t ready yet, and

that it won’t replace humans entirely. I don’t think my opinion has changed about my

topic due to this source, just supplemented because of its inclusion of actual technology

and opinions from professionals in the field as well as its initial welcome into today’s

society. I think I will include this source due to it containing information about the recent

developments in AI and the new way of thinking in the “AI era.” This academic journal
 Blake Pruitt 4

gives an example for the argument of having people not worry right now. It shows that

technology is not advanced enough to the point where they will be replacing humans

right now. Which flows together with my other two sources, which also come to the same

conclusion, that manufacturers' jobs are safe for now.

Maxim Robert, Mark Muro, and Jacob Whiton. Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How

Machines are Affecting People and Places. With contributions from Ian Hathaway,

Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, Jan. 2019, pp. 4-8, 13-107.

www.brookings.edu/wp-

content/uploads/2019/01/2019.01_BrookingsMetro_Automation-AI_Report_Muro-

Maxim-Whiton-FINAL-version.pdf. Accessed 23 Sept. 2019.

This report is used to inform about the upcoming impact of AI and automation on a wide

variety of factors, mostly tied to employment. This report theorizes conclusions about

AI’s impact on employment by analyzing past instances of automation and technological

development, most being from the “IT era” and establishes a point about the cyclical

nature of these events. These conclusions are then applied to the next generation of

automation and the introduction of developed AI. Although, this report is mostly about

the theories of automation and past eras. Concluding that AI will have the same impact as

the last innovations in automation had. Being that they created enough jobs to supply

those that lost their jobs with a chance. The authors warn of potential deviation and past

initial market failure when new forms of automation are introduced. This organization

research report seems like a reliable source, due to the nature of how most to all the

resources used were cited if they were not their own and the credibility of the authors.

Mark Muro is the senior fellow and policy director for the Metropolitan Policy Program
 Blake Pruitt 5

at Brookings I think this source is objective, it seems like the concepts are driven from

facts and statistics from years past, and uses those to conclude possible outcomes, there is

no definitive outcome, but it does lean more to the side of history repeating itself. I think

the purpose is to inform the public, most likely workers, who are worried about losing

their jobs due to the development of AI in the past couple of years. I believe this source is

the most important one when considering my topic. I believe that this source is the most

important one because of the theories and conclusions it produces as well as statistics on

a multitude of regions. This report also addresses both ends of the spectrum, where the

authors had taken the time to gather the statistics and information from the past and

applied it forward, but also account for the unexpected, by including statements and

recommendations for preparation in case AI certainly does replace more jobs than it can

resupply. I feel like this source was a huge helper in deciding the outcome of how I think

AI will develop, it certainly contains enough statistics and historical analysis to put up a

pretty convincing case in favor of AI not replacing humans any time soon. This source

will appear in my project due to it being a massive contributor to my thoughts on AI and

its impact on manufacturing, going from other states to even my hometown. Out of the

three sources, this one gives a bunch of statistics that contribute to the backing of the

other two sources' conclusions of AI’s impact. Where the other two sources lack

information this one fills in the gaps.

Press, Gil. “Is AI Going to be a Jobs Killer? New Reports about the Future of Work.” Forbes

Media LLC., July 15, 2019. www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2019/07/15/is-ai-going-to-be-

a-jobs-killer-new-reports-about-the-future-of-work/#39f9d2dbafb2. Accessed September

23, 2019.
 Blake Pruitt 6

This article is meant to inform its readers of the theorized impact of AI from multiple

companies and to address the “fine print,” interlaid in those numbers. The article uses

employment statistics supplied from companies like, ZipRecruiter and Forrester, who

study impacts on business and human resources, to conclude what the impact AI is likely

to have. This article also covers the risk of jumping to conclusions, using The Economist,

a business magazine, as an example of including a daunting statistic and it not getting full

disclosure of its actual portrayal. The author concludes with data from various companies

like ZipRecruiter, who predicts a major increase in jobs, from analysis of 2018

integration of AI, avoiding the apocalyptic scenario. I believe this source to be a mostly

unbiased informative article, using various companies surrounded in business as sources

to develop the article and get its message across. There may be some comments that are a

bit biased, like where Press talks about his failure to understand the difference in how a

statistic is portrayed and going on to down talk higher education. This opinion about

higher education might be credible though, due to his background in education

consultancy, and his multiple research management positions. I feel like the intended

audience is to the working person and skeptics because the information tackled addresses

various employment statistics and the big shocker of a statistic that came from The

Economist, which might have startled people. I feel this source is the least important of

these three. The nature of some of these statistics addressing both sides, but it exemplifies

the argument of this topic and warns of possible falsified or misconstrued statistics. I

think this source is useful in the fact that it contains statistics from various companies that

the other sources haven’t previously provided, but also addresses the problems with some

statistics. It also puts together a possible impact through education as the second source
 Blake Pruitt 7

suggests through the “IT era.” This source also got me thinking about the impact on

education by AI, which I hadn’t necessarily thought about before, meaning that the more

AI develops, the more people have to develop and grow to become useful, whether it be

trained by a company or higher education.