April 10, 2023
TOKYO – People could be spending 40% less time on housework and family-care tasks within the next decade thanks to AI automation, according to a team of researchers from Ochanomizu University and the University of Oxford.
The results, published recently in the journal PLOS ONE, were based on a survey of 65 Japanese and British artificial intelligence experts.
Researchers used the Delphi method — a process for gathering opinions on a specific academic topic — to collect participants’ feedback on the potential automation of 17 housework and care-related tasks. Results were relayed back to the participants, and they were given the chance to revise their thinking if they so desired.
“Grocery shopping,” topped the list of potentially automatable tasks, with 59% or participants believing automation was possible within the next decade. Fifty-two percent thought “use of services,” such as banking transactions, was achievable, while 50% said “non-grocery shopping” would also become automated.
Childcare was thought less likely to become automated in comparison with household chores. “Hands-on childcare” was considered the least automatable task at 21%; “interacting with kids,” such as by playing with them, came in at 22%; and “escorting children outside the home” registered 24%.
On average, the researchers predicted that 39% of 17 domestic work tasks could be automated within 10 years. However, when viewed as a separate group, the Japanese male experts thought the figure would be closer to 35%.
Research team member Ochanomizu University Prof. Nobuko Nagase said: “In Japan, domestic work is still very much seen as a female concern, so Japanese men may have a low interest in reducing the burden of domestic work tasks.” Nagase called for increasing the number of women active in AI development and related fields.
Ritsumeikan University Prof. Atsushi Aoyama, an expert in technology management, said the figures might reflect the tendency in Japan to seek high standards with regard to household work and safety. Aoyama said Japan must leverage technologies that have yet to reach full fruition in order to build a society in which innovations can be more easily fostered.