Robotics, Automation, and the Future of Work in Kentucky
The nature of work in Kentucky is going through another major transition. From the rise of remote work to the decline of the coal industry, the state is beginning to embrace an innovation that could affect practically every industry and field: robotics and automation. And while this could be an unnerving development for many who have already felt the consequences of massive economic transformations in the past 50 years, Dr. Daniela Rus, Director Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, predicts that Kentucky is uniquely poised to integrate the use of robotics seamlessly and equitably.
In October, Dr. Rus presented at AccelerateKY’s Connect. Inform. Inspire. Conference at the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus about how she has begun to work with Kentucky-based entrepreneurs through her robotics-focused research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the first ways she sought to engage with Kentucky’s economy was by educating and reskilling Kentucky’s workforce.
Her colleagues developed App Inventor, an application that teaches introductory programming skills. Its use was multifaceted but with one central goal, as Dr. Rus explained: “To help unemployed and underemployed workers in rural kentucky learn computational thinking… (as) a vital skill for today’s digital economy.” This new approach to work could have massive ramifications on the way much of the state works and innovates.
App Inventor, just as its name suggests, gives aspiring learners training in creating real-world applications and programs, which can be run on a variety of mobile devices. And as learners are able to apply a computational approach to problem-solving, programming, and app development, they will be able to pick up more advanced skills and dive deeper into the field. “Computation, AI, machine learning, and robotics,” Dr. Rus said, “are central to much of our research, and I’m optimistic about what the future holds.”
Integrating Automation and Entrepreneurship
The partnership between MIT researcher Daniela Rus and Kentucky-based MIT Comparative Media Studies Research Affiliate Sam Ford began after an eye-opening dialogue they had. As Jeff Freilich recalled in an episode of WBUR’s Here and Now, he remembered how Ford stated “You know, as a Kentuckian, it's really hard to be excited about the future of work when you don't really think you're part of it.”
Freilich, an MIT-based program lead in AI literacy, admitted in his interview that as a native of the Northeast, he had his own assumptions about Kentuckians and our relationship with coal. As he talked more with Ford and with Rusty Justice and began to learn more about the region and its people, he made a pretty sizeable discovery:
“I think one of the biggest discoveries that I made is that people in rural Kentucky aren’t necessarily part of the digital revolution — it’s not because they can’t be part of it. It’s because there are so many obstacles. They know they have to reinvent their future.”
More than four years later, AccelerateKY—powered by MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program—continues to invite thought leaders and innovators to help the Commonwealth sustain its transition into a digital economy. And as organizations and companies like Bit Source, a Pikeville-based software startup that reskills and upskills former coal miners with coding and programming tools, have demonstrated, Kentucky has begun to take control of its future.
The State of Robotic Development in Kentucky
Robotics as a field is expanding in both scope and sophistication in Kentucky. From private business leaders to major universities, leaders in the field have begun to identify ways that investment in robotics and automation can improve labor conditions for workers.
In October 2021, the University of Louisville opened Kentucky’s first dedicated robotics research center. The Louisville Automation and Robotics Research Institute (LARRI) is an interdisciplinary research facility that invites faculty and student researchers to explore how robotics-based solutions can be applied to some of the biggest problems the state faces. With research going into automation research that aims to bolster the state’s three largest employment sectors – health care, manufacturing, and logistics – LARRI also seeks to understand better how humans and robots can interact more harmoniously. One of the biggest reservations that people have about the advancement of automation and robotics in practically every industry is that their presence will displace workers.
It’s understandable that people, especially in Kentucky, have these kinds of fears. After decades of decline in the coal industry and after countless manufacturing jobs were moved out of the state into countries where labor costs were exponentially cheaper, Kentuckians are right to be wary of another monumental change to the way people work. But robotics, as leaders across the industry have noted, have the potential to improve workers’ lives in terms of health and income.
As Vijay Kamineni, a team member of MIT’s REAP program and Business Transformation Leader at Logan Aluminum, has noted, automated machine processes will never really be able to replace human labor fully. Instead, he told us, “upskilling our workforce to hand off the work the machines do better, be skilled to take up the work that only humans can do.” In other words, as automated machines and processes will be able to handle some work better than what humans can do, they will ultimately need human operators. In this capacity, human workers will have the opportunity to upskill and reskill in a way that meets the demands of newly digital economy.
Dr. Rus also believes that as more people take on skilled programming work, the possibilities for independent, smaller producers will expand precipitously. “Just as smart phones have democratized computing,” she said, “we believe that 3D printing and computation can democratize manufacturing.”
This prevailing idealism that Dr. Rus relies on when talking about Kentucky is now based on the ways she has seen people across the state embrace a transition to a digital economy. “My optimism rests,” she concluded, “on the belief that we as educators, business leaders, innovators, and policymakers have the ability to take action and control the challenges that this technology creates while harvesting opportunities.”
This blog post is part of an ongoing series exploring the economic resilience and future of Kentucky’s workforce. To subscribe to updates, sign up for our newsletter.
