By 2035, Europe may face street protests and conflicts between people and service robots amid mass robotization of the service sector and the displacement of some workers from the labor market, according to a new Europol analytical report, The Unmanned Future(s): The Impact of Robotics and Unmanned Systems on Law Enforcement.
According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, citing the document, Europol estimates that by the mid-2030s, robots and unmanned systems will be widely used in areas such as delivery and cleaning, which could lead to job losses among low-skilled workers from disadvantaged areas and cause protests accompanied by attacks on robots and infrastructure, including medical devices and service machines.
The report emphasizes that the widespread introduction of robotic systems could change not only the labor market, but also the landscape of crime and law enforcement in the EU, including new threats ranging from attacks on service robots to the use of drones for criminal purposes.
At the same time, a number of experts interviewed by the media express doubts about the realism of a “war between humans and robots” scenario in the next ten years, pointing out that the development of regulation and retraining programs could mitigate the social risks of robotization.
