Robotics are beginning to transform a broad spectrum of industries. But what’s far more exciting is the potential for robotics and AI to drive innovation that alleviates human suffering of many kinds, both directly and indirectly. While we’re excited about the application to autonomous vehicles or manufacturing, what’s potentially more inspiring is the opportunity to scale and dramatically improve disaster relief efforts.

By assigning robots the task of working in hazardous conditions — poor lighting, toxic chemicals, tight spaces, and heavy lifting — we remove risk to humans of workplace injuries.

We can also use robots to assist humans, so they can continue to work without fearing long-term health issues, such as chronic lower back pain, occupational asthma, or upper limb disorders.

Any fundamental health or humanitarian crisis demands that we continue to innovate and think broadly. We all know that solutions to seemingly intractable human problems have frequently emerged from unexpected places. So here’s to a more humanitarian vision of robotics. Machines won’t replace us. Rather, they’ll accelerate the impact of the solutions we’ve already developed, and present wholly new opportunities to responsibly advance our civilization too.

Read the full article about robotics assisting humanitarian efforts by Tej Kohli at NewCo Shift.