Transcript

Wherever you stand on the discussion surrounding the vaccines, the recent news cycle focused on the vaccine mandates hitting the healthcare industry, where unvaccinated nurses, administrators, and support staff are resigning or being fired for not getting the jab. While one side points to the problem of kicking out yesterday’s Heroes during a still existing pandemic, the other side cheers that a more ‘rational’ and protected staff base now occupies the healthcare institutions. 

Ignoring the complex points of natural immunity, misinformation, the fear of growing state power across the world, and the increased schism between ideologies and people on this topic, what is clear is that newfound labour shortages have opened the door for technological solutions. 

I’ve spoken on how autonomous systems like AI and certain robots supported hospitals and clinics during the early days of the pandemic in a few podcasts (Here, and Here) early last year. 

• There were examples of rapid testing being done by AI before we had PCR or other tests at scale. Alibaba’s AI was able to detect the virus in 20 seconds from a chest scan with a 96% accuracy, compared to the 15 minute time period of most technicians. 
• Autonomous robots and drones disinfecting rooms and neighborhoods
• 3D printers were used to supply ventilator parts during supply shortages for intensive care patients
• Even VR headsets were used by people kept in quarantine or isolation to reduce anxiety and stress. 

Numbers of staff being removed from healthcare across countries

But today it seems like the supportive nature of autonomous technologies might shift towards a replacing nature. 

A quick and far from extensive google search will give you an idea of the scope of the healthcare cuts that are being realised in different countries because healthcare workers are refusing to get the vaccine:

Germany: 7 nurses fired in early 2021

France: 3000 health workers were (temporarily) suspended

Australia: Thousands are expected to be removed by the October 31 deadline   

USA: New York alone fires 1400 healthcare workers, and about 30% of all healthcare workers are still unvaccinated

Apart from America the percentage of healthcare workers is relatively low, and this also typically includes administrative employees as well. But, healthcare is typically short staffed, so any staff loss is bound to be disruptive, especially if the shortage was not expected to be filled in the coming years. 

The WHO actually projects a shortage of 18 million healthcare workers worldwide by 2030, and 9 million nurses and midwives will be needed by 2030 to reach the SDG on health and wellbeing.

The WHO actually projects a shortage of 18 million healthcare workers worldwide by 2030, and 9 million nurses and midwives will be needed by 2030 to reach the SDG on health and wellbeing.

Enter Grace, a lifelike nurse robot

You may recall Hanson Robotics as the company that brought the world Sophia, the now famous conversational robot which has citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, Hanson Robotics unveiled a new robot android, Grace. 

Grace has been designed to work in healthcare, and has specific sensors to support and assist doctors and nurses like a thermal camera to detect temperature and pulse. 

Grace’s appearance has also been designed to take in mind some of the issues experienced in the pandemic, most notable isolation and the lack of social interaction experienced by many patients. 

Grace can simulate the action of more than 48 major facial muscles and appears to have a much more natural engagement than Sophia. I’ve linked a video in the shownotes if you want to get a better idea of the impressive facial movements Grace is capable of. This includes raising eyebrows, blinking, mouth and lip movement to imitate speaking, smiling and other emotional expressions. Though of course the issue of the uncanny valley hasn’t been solved yet, and the face, though an improvement from the Sophia robot, still appears visually off.       

The facial expressions and gestures are important however because as with Sophia, Grace uses Artificial Intelligence to have conversations in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, has the ability to diagnose patients based off of symptom descriptions (Though I’m unsure to what level of complexity the diagnosis is capable, I’m assuming it is more common ailments….for now). And perhaps most impressive, and most relevant to the current labour shortage crisis, is Grace’s ability to do talk therapy. 

In previous episodes I’ve mentioned companies like Woe Bot which is essentially an AI therapist that you can download and bonds with a user and provides mental health therapy. The company has over 100 million dollars invested and already has millions of messages exchanged with users every week. Think of the AI Samantha voiced by Scarlett Johanssen in the movie Her, but focused on mental health. 

Now Grace’s AI isn’t as sophisticated and the entire android is currently only in Beta production, but the ability to have a social interaction even with an android during a period of isolation will be beneficial to patients. 

Grace of course is marketed as supporting rather than replacing healthcare staff, with a focus on senior care. And though Grace does have 2 arms which can act out a number of gestures or guide a patient through certain arm movements, it still requires a wheeled platform to move around, limiting mobility possibilities in a healthcare facility. But even if limited, with the healthcare labour shortage and this new round of removing unvaccinated staff, there is a real possibility that certain work activities could be done by healthcare robots and androids simple because there aren’t enough human workers to do the job. And as we are clearly seeing today, once certain behaviours or work conditions continue for a long enough time frame, it becomes challenging to revert back to the way things were done previously, look at remote work for instance. 

It is very possible that once these healthcare robots become active at a larger scale, and are improved over time, certain job tasks like basic diagnoses, social interaction with elderly patients, and certain therapy practices can be relegated to the robotic support staff. And this is in line with the plans that Hanson Robotics has in mind. Grace is planned to be mass-produced by the end of 2021 and will be deployed in locations including Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan and Korea to start off with. 

Finally, in a previous podcast conversation on social robots, Professor Oliver Korn mentioned that the one major hurdle that needs to be overcome for social robots to be used in greater amounts was large investment for technological improvement. It is quite possible that the pandemic is now indirectly acting as this investment vehicle, shifting opportunity and investment towards this market. And the Grace robot might be one of the first and more well known examples showcasing what is to come in the near future. 

One last thought. The most obvious and widely talked about impact is in the healthcare industry. However, there are also claims that other parts of the US economy are being disrupted due to the vaccine mandate and people’s reluctance to be vaccinated. Police, firefighters, port authorities, manufacturing, and even airlines are all apparently struggling with either newfound or intensified labour shortages. And if this is the case, the exact same argument that was laid out with Grace can be applied for these other sectors, namely technology and autonomous systems can and may be implemented to make up for the lack of human employees, either in part or as a whole replacement.

 I hope that as you’ve been listening to the podcast episodes a clearer picture of just how many parts of our society can be disrupted with new automation technologies, especially as events such as the pandemic open the opportunity for these technologies to be adopted and integrated for long term use.