:00:00. > :00:32.This is Adam Jensen, star of the video game
:00:33. > :00:38.Set in 2027, the poor chap has to undergo extensive
:00:39. > :00:43.cybernetic modifications after being severely injured.
:00:44. > :00:47.Well, just ten years before those events might occur,
:00:48. > :00:51.that plot line doesn't seem that far off.
:00:52. > :00:54.For years now people have been body hacking,
:00:55. > :00:58.giving themselves extra abilities and, as our understanding
:00:59. > :01:09.of robotics has advanced, so has our creativity.
:01:10. > :01:16.Like the cyborg in the video game, he too has a bionic eye.
:01:17. > :01:18.It doesn't have Terminator vision like this, yet,
:01:19. > :01:23.Inside a prosthetic eye, which is an odd shape,
:01:24. > :01:25.they're not a sphere, a prosthetic eye, they're actually
:01:26. > :01:31.Inside that is a battery, a video camera and a video
:01:32. > :01:35.transmitter all attached to a circuit board so they can
:01:36. > :01:42.The camera is turned on and off with a magnet.
:01:43. > :01:46.It doesn't look at all comfortable, is it in anyway comfortable?
:01:47. > :01:59.The first configuration that looks the most uncomfortable,
:02:00. > :02:03.it looks like a '90s iMac, you can see all the goods inside.
:02:04. > :02:06.Like the battery and the wires, but that's covered by smooth
:02:07. > :02:11.I don't have open wires and batteries, you know.
:02:12. > :02:15.That kind of made my stomach drop a little bit when I saw that.
:02:16. > :02:18.Rob damaged his eye when he was nine and in 2009 began exploring
:02:19. > :02:23.As a film-maker himself, he was fascinated with the idea
:02:24. > :02:35.It's like an absurd toy for a one-eyed film-maker.
:02:36. > :02:39.I used to watch the Bionic Man when I was a kid, the $6 Million
:02:40. > :02:42.I had the action figure, you looked through the back of his head,
:02:43. > :02:48.I was looking at my Nokia flip phone at the time I was like -
:02:49. > :02:51.That's in fact who I called, I called Nokia.
:02:52. > :02:54.They said - well, we'll call the camera module people in China.
:02:55. > :02:58.It's very small, it's very challenging.
:02:59. > :03:06.It does visual dropouts, which is the visual language
:03:07. > :03:09.of all video from the future, including Princess Leia
:03:10. > :03:19.Since the initial prototype, Rob and his engineers have gone
:03:20. > :03:26.He now has one eye that glows red when it films and another camera eye
:03:27. > :03:36.I get calls from and emails from moms whose kid has just lost
:03:37. > :03:40.an eye, because it's some sort of fun thing to show a kid this
:03:41. > :03:42.maniac running around on videos and glowing
:03:43. > :03:46.red eye cameras and stuff. It's fun for them to look at that.
:03:47. > :03:49.They're now looking working on ways to transfer the technology to other
:03:50. > :03:56.We're doing 3D scans of those now and then that creates a space that
:03:57. > :04:00.you can take into software to map on the technology that we're
:04:01. > :04:07.Some people golf, I like to make fake eye cameras and, you know,
:04:08. > :04:50.UAE, that will go down well with users. Step aside, here is with
:04:51. > :04:57.Khalifa, taking the coveted crown of most watched YouTube clip it has
:04:58. > :05:05.been viewed a staggering... 2.9 billion times. Elon musk launched
:05:06. > :05:10.the new all electric Tesla model three. A pricetag of $35,000 it is
:05:11. > :05:18.supposed to be more affordable than their previous effort which cost 200
:05:19. > :05:21.grand. Rival automobile company has scrapped its plans to build a
:05:22. > :05:26.billion-dollar factory in the US state of Nevada. This leaves a big
:05:27. > :05:32.question mark over than launch next year of the new model. No, this is
:05:33. > :05:37.not a digital version of the Ministry of silly walks but this is
:05:38. > :05:42.Google 's deep mined attempting to learn how to walk. The research has
:05:43. > :05:45.been conducted in virtual environments that one day it should
:05:46. > :05:53.help robots learn how to navigate complex spaces. And, finally, a
:05:54. > :05:59.former NASA scientist to build a super soaker, giant sized. It is so
:06:00. > :06:13.big you will at least see him coming.
:06:14. > :06:17.Almost everyone in the world who works pays tax on the money
:06:18. > :06:19.they earn, but at this restaurant in San Francisco there
:06:20. > :06:22.are no waiting staff and robots plate the food.
:06:23. > :06:25.That work is currently not taxable and politician Jane Kim is now
:06:26. > :06:27.looking into how this is changing the city's economy.
:06:28. > :06:30.So what we're seeing is after automation that you can
:06:31. > :06:33.hire less people in order to deliver products maybe quicker
:06:34. > :06:37.But it's one of the questions that we have, it's true this
:06:38. > :06:39.is really convenient, but at what cost?
:06:40. > :06:42.It's not just restaurants, this picture is now seen across the city,
:06:43. > :06:44.from hotels and hospitals to the latest addition
:06:45. > :06:46.to the autonomous family, self-driving cars.
:06:47. > :06:49.Policy makers have noticed, every time a robot takes human job,
:06:50. > :06:56.The research is showing us that jobs are going to get lost over the next
:06:57. > :06:58.ten years and if before the Great Depression
:06:59. > :07:00.we could have predicted what would come afterwards,
:07:01. > :07:03.if government could have prepared for the job loss that occurred,
:07:04. > :07:08.That is the level at which we are looking at potentially
:07:09. > :07:10.over the next ten years, in terms of job loss
:07:11. > :07:16.Estimations of how many jobs will be wiped out vary widely
:07:17. > :07:21.from study to study, but a recent report especially has
:07:22. > :07:27.It's estimated that robots will replace 37% of jobs
:07:28. > :07:29.in the United States by the early 2030s.
:07:30. > :07:33.So the biggest concern is mass job displacement,
:07:34. > :07:35.lack of true, meaningful, high wage work.
:07:36. > :07:38.We are already seeing a decrease of that in San Francisco
:07:39. > :07:41.where we have the fastest growing income gap in the country
:07:42. > :07:44.and a wealth gap that is akin to the country of Rwanda,
:07:45. > :07:46.accord to our own human services agency data
:07:47. > :07:50.and so we have a shrinking middle-class and we have this
:07:51. > :07:52.growing imminent threat that many of our meaningful,
:07:53. > :07:54.working-class and even middle-class jobs may go away
:07:55. > :08:04.At Cafe X, again a human worker has been replaced by a robot.
:08:05. > :08:07.An Americano with milk, served by a robot.
:08:08. > :08:11.Now, the human has a different role, advising on coffee beans and showing
:08:12. > :08:14.customers how to use the tablet to operate the robot.
:08:15. > :08:20.The owner is not sure about the idea of a tax on the replacement.
:08:21. > :08:23.I guess I find it a little odd because what robots are supposed
:08:24. > :08:28.That means it allows a shift in labour from doing highly
:08:29. > :08:30.repetitive, low productivity tasks to more useful things.
:08:31. > :08:41.So in order to have this machine operate, there has to be a lot
:08:42. > :08:43.of engineers on software, hardware and manufacturing to build
:08:44. > :08:50.Jobs like this require training and that's what Supervisor Kim wants
:08:51. > :08:57.If you're a childcare worker or you're an in home
:08:58. > :08:59.support services worker, working with a senior
:09:00. > :09:02.or individual with disability, you often work three or four hours
:09:03. > :09:08.So one of the ideas was, why not tax robots and invest
:09:09. > :09:11.in these poverty jobs and make them truly living wage
:09:12. > :09:19.This would mean a robot tax potentially subsidising low paying,
:09:20. > :09:21.but essential jobs, so that the human employees
:09:22. > :09:27.Currently, many people are working but not earning enough to live,
:09:28. > :09:30.leading several politicians around the world to float the idea
:09:31. > :09:36.This would be expensive for governments and Supervisor Kim
:09:37. > :09:39.is suggesting an automation tax could be a solution.
:09:40. > :09:42.If there's one thing that San Francisco is known for,
:09:43. > :09:44.it's leading the conversation on technology and innovation,
:09:45. > :09:49.but as harder and harder questions are asked about automation
:09:50. > :09:52.and what this really means for people's jobs it seems
:09:53. > :09:54.appropriate that this city, which has added so much
:09:55. > :10:00.to the problem, is also grappling with what could be the solution.
:10:01. > :10:03.But the rise of robotic workers is playing out on a global scale
:10:04. > :10:07.and San Francisco is not the only place trying to lead
:10:08. > :10:13.In the EU, a proposal to tax robots was voted down earlier in the year
:10:14. > :10:17.and one of the Commissioners who did so says robots will create more
:10:18. > :10:22.They are worried because they say robots they will take their jobs,
:10:23. > :10:30.Progress always created more jobs than progress used to destroy.
:10:31. > :10:34.The train is moving and speed is high and now it's up to us to be
:10:35. > :10:45.on that train or to stay and to wave to the leaving train.
:10:46. > :10:50.Concerns about automation replacing human jobs has been felt sense
:10:51. > :10:52.the Industrial Revolution and more recently workers in
:10:53. > :10:54.the manufacturing industry have seen jobs disappear
:10:55. > :11:01.As the issue of a robot tax begins to spread further,
:11:02. > :11:04.a fundamental question still needs to be answered -
:11:05. > :11:10.In the context of robots of course automation is much broader
:11:11. > :11:16.They gave this definition more than 100 years ago.
:11:17. > :11:18.Politicians can no longer ignore the robots creeping
:11:19. > :11:22.into the workplace and while many of the big questions
:11:23. > :11:25.are still being thrashed out, it's clear that the issue of robot
:11:26. > :11:38.workers is becoming more and more of a political one.
:11:39. > :11:43.You can follow us on Twitter @BBC Click throughout
:11:44. > :11:45.the week and like us on Facebook, too.
:11:46. > :11:46.Thanks for watching and we will see you soon.