TOEFL Writing Academic Discussion Question: Automation and the Workforce
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The professor is teaching a class on science. Write a post responding to the professor’s question.
In your response, you should do the following.
- Express and support your opinion.
- Make a contribution to the discussion in your own words.
An effective response will contain at least 100 words.
Professor: Next, we’ll be discussing the future of automation and its impact on the workforce. As industries integrate more advanced technologies, there are concerns about job displacement and the transformation of work. For example, automation may replace some jobs but could also create opportunities in technology and engineering fields. Given these changes, do you believe that automation will ultimately benefit or harm workers? Explain why you think so.
Juan: I believe automation will benefit the workforce by enhancing efficiency and creating high-skilled jobs in sectors like AI and robotics. This shift could lead to increased job satisfaction as people engage in more creative and less monotonous work, fundamentally improving our quality of life.
Alice: While Juan makes a valid point about job creation in certain sectors, I’m concerned about widespread job losses among less skilled people. Not everyone can transition into high-tech roles, so automation could widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Therefore, I think the harms could outweigh the benefits, especially in the short to medium term.
In my opinion, automation will end up harming workers ten or twenty years down the road. My personal belief is that when a company has a choice between compensating an employee or utilizing cheap technology, the company will almost always choose to use technology. For example, the car manufacturing industry used to employ tens of thousands of workers, but due to advances in technology, the workforce has been reduced to a fraction of what it was fifty years ago. While Juan raised a relevant point about efficiency leading to the creation of new jobs, I believe he is missing a critical idea. To be more specific, high-skilled jobs like programming and game design are already disappearing due to the advent of AI technology that can do the same job for almost nothing.
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