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Mark Cuban: America Must Invest Heavily in Robotics and AI to Remain Competitive
POSTED 04/27/2020
To take back jobs from overseas competition, billionaire Mark Cuban believes North American companies are going to need to invest heavily in robotics and artificial intelligence.
In two separate interviews in mid-April, Cuban, who also owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks basketball team, touted the benefits of automation and dismissed claims that robots are job-killers.
“I’m looking at investments in robotics because I’m a big believer that for America 2.0, the only way we’re going to be able to take jobs back from overseas is by advancing beyond them technologically,” Cuban told Brietbart News.
Cuban said the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how necessary it is for companies to move critical manufacturing infrastructure closer to home. “We need core products whether it’s medicine or PPE (personal protection equipment) manufactured in the United States,” Cuban told CNN on April 19.
Robotics is key to that reshoring of manufacturing, Cuban told CNN.
“We really need to invest in … the infrastructure of robotics. Japan, Germany, and China, they're all kicking our butt in robotics,” Cuban said. “By implementing robotics and really investing in it as a country as part of our infrastructure programs, we can bring a lot of jobs back over here.”
He also stressed the importance of artificial intelligence to American’s future.
“AI will dominate the future. … It hasn't been a focus of ours. We need to make it a focus of ours,” Cuban said. “And we need to use it in a manner that helps, not just big businesses where it's being applied now, but also small businesses. We don't want to be in a world of AI haves-and-have-nots or a country with AI haves-and-have-nots.”
When asked about whether automation will take away jobs from Americans as they return to work after COVID-19, Cuban insisted that robotics will actually lead to more opportunity.
“Right now, jobs are overseas and being outsourced because it's the least expensive way to do it. By bringing it back over here and using robotics, you can make it even less expensive than what's being done overseas,” Cuban said.
“And by doing that, you bring so many jobs dealing with the creation, the maintenance, the monitoring of software, the evaluation of the robotics that it will see traditional manufacturing employment. You know, that's the only way it's going to work.”