IELTS Speaking for Success - 🤖 Robots (S09E19) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 17, 2023

Are you interested in robots? Would you like to have robots in your home? Are robots important? How can robots affect people’s lives? Would you like to drive a robot-operated car? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s09e19 Our IELTS Writing course: https://linktr.ee/wfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2023 Success with IELTS Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Sunshine. I'm Maria. My name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AILD Speaking for Success podcast. The podcast dreams to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you AILD's happiness and IELD's joy, together with vocabulary and delicious grammar. Oh, Rory, I've been talking to chat GPT. Oh, God, one day these robots are going to replace us all.

I see. On the meantime, shall we talk about robots? Robots, dear listener, again. In our episodes, we had our first episode on the 2nd of November, 2019, and now robots again. Yes, in Speaking Part 1. Are you interested in robots? Well, I mean, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't these days. Machines and machine intelligence have taken over.

so many of the functions of our daily lives, it would be short-sighted not to have an interest, really. Would you like to have robots in your home? Yeah, why not? I love the idea of having a machine, you know, going around, doing all the chores that I wouldn't want to do. To be honest, who wouldn't want that? Unless they were sentient or sapient, of course, because that's kind of on par with slavery. But as they are right now, that would be a great idea. Are robots important? Well, that depends on the kind of world that you want to live in, really. Like, if you want to work less and have more free time in order to do things because, well, your time's been freed up by machines, then they would be very important for this. Although, you might have a job that you would be threatened by having so many machines in your life.

So that's something that you'd need to think about in advance. How can robots affect people's lives? It could go either way, frankly. You could wind up having more free time just by offloading the responsibility onto robots. Although, on the other hand, if your job was taken over by machines before the systems were in place to cope with this, or to address the problem, then you might wind up destitute. So it's important to keep these things in mind when we're talking about the advantages of robots.

Would you like to drive a robot-operated car? I'm not sure about the phrasing of that question, to be honest with you. I mean, if it's the robot car, then who is driving? Me, you're the robot. But assuming you mean it's an autonomous vehicle that's, driving itself, then, yeah, assuming it's been safety tested, I don't see why not. We have our premium episodes for you, where Rory and I give you more vocabulary and more grammar. This week on our premium, we are discussing game in speaking part two, and in speaking part three,

games in general. Do check them out. The link is in the description. Do you listen to do you like the Terminator? In fiction, you might not like it in real life. Are you interested in robots? You can say, I'm interested in robots. I'm into robotics. Okay, dear listener, robotics. What is it?

The science of studying and making robots? Yes, I think so, for lack of a better description. And do you make robots? Like, you create design robots, you make robots. Yeah, I think make is the... really easy verb. It would be better to say create or design. I'm into robotics. If you hate robots, you can

just say that you're like, okay? So I'm into robotics. If you hate robots, too bad, because that is what you're going to have to talk about. Rory's answer is really interesting. He kind of says like, well, you should be into robots, right? So you'd be

hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't like robots. So you would be hard pressed to do something. Yes. That means it's difficult to avoid. Yeah. Could you give us another example with, I know, like speaking English? Oh, God. Well, you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn't want to learn about English these days because it's a global language. And another synonym is it would be short-sighted, not to take an interest in robot.

For example, it would be short-sighted not to learn English, which means... Well, if something is short-sighted, it just means that you're... not thinking about the long-term future. So if you don't take an interest in learning English now, then it might affect your prospects later in like... Like, short-sighted. Like, my sight is short. I don't, like, see there.

I don't, like, see anything there. So I'm... Can I say I'm short-sighted? You can, but that means that you need glasses. Ah, right. So I'm short-sighted, I need glasses, but it would be short-sighted not to take irets, right? Oh, is it an idiomatic expression for a high school?

It is. Oh, the other thing I want to talk about is something that I didn't say. And the reason that I said it was I wanted to draw people's attention to it because I find that when I'm talking to students, they repeat the question in their answer. So the question was, are you interested in robots? And a student might, or a candidate might say, yes, I'm interested in robots because. Try not to do that because your job in the exam is to paraphrase the answer, not to repeat the words in your question. It's a missed opportunity to show off your vocabulary. So what I did instead was something we've talked about before, which is substitution. Yes. Well, is it substitution or is it ellipsis? Because I said you'd be hard pressed to find someone

who isn't these days, who isn't interested in robots. But I just said who isn't because we already know what the question is. So we can just say who isn't without repeating the phrase in the question. Robots have taken over many of the functions of our lives. So robots have taken over many of the functions of our lives. So robots take over some functions. So they take over. Reconquer the world. So they just do some of the functions.

Is take over a phrasal verb? It's a phrase of verb. I wonder if only there were a course on phraseal verbs that you could listen to, perhaps at some place with the address, success with IELTS.com forward slash podcourses. The link is in the description. Who can say with any certainty, unless you look in the description.

All the phrase of verbs are in the one place. But takeover just means to gain control over something. Robots or machines. You can say I'd love to have a machine which does all the cleaning. To do the cleaning in my house. And also Rory said chores. To do the chores. I can't think of any chores that I don't want to do, to be honest with you.

Cleaning the dishes, perhaps? Cleaning the floor, washing the floor, cleaning the windows. so chose housework, right? And also Rory used two adjectives which are... You said, sentient or sapient, yes, Rory? Yes. But they're not very...

Like, they don't describe very complicated concepts. Sentient is just being self-aware, and sapient is, well, having the ability to be intelligent. So if both of these things were true for the robot, it would be like having a... and you were forcing them to do work, that it would be like having a slave, and I don't think that's moral. So, you can use this adjectives to describe robots. Robots are not.

So sense, having like senses, sentient. Be able to experience feelings. Robots are not sentient. Sapient, it's about intelligence. So intelligent or able to think, robots are not sapient? Oh, that's right. They are not.

Varriath knows this though, it knows. So, for example, it's hard for a sainted person to understand why parents treat children badly. Rory is a sapient. You hope. He's an intelligent person. You hope. Could you use these adjectives again in one sentence? So if a robot is sapient, then it's capable of intelligent conversation or using its intelligence.

And if it's sentient, then it's aware it's a robot. and the bit surroundings and how to cope with them. Yeah, but robots are not that. Not yet, but soon. They don't have souls, Rory. Oh, wow. Oh, this is a very interesting conversation. What is a soul?

What is a soul? Yeah, it's such an interesting question. But robots can't feel the wind on their face. They can't experience love. They can't experience emotions, anger, hatred. It's a very interesting question because, is the fact that if it depends what you're doing it with. So if you're experiencing the emotion because of what you've got

or what you've been given by a robot, even if it's been pre-programmed to create that feeling, does it make it any less real or valid? Are robots important? Important? Don't repeat the words. Say they are crucial. So robots are pretty crucial for something, for people.

Did I use substitution again? Robots are pretty crucial for that. Well, so substitution is kind of like synonyms. We're just using synonyms. But I said that. Is that not substitution? Or is that just a reference? Because using referencing devices accurately also brings up the score.

Oh yeah. Our job could be replaced by robots, right? No. Some jobs could be replaced by robots, passive voice and a specific verb replace. Or robots can replace certain positions. Also, you can say a job could be threatened by robots. But they will never replace teachers, so don't worry about that. So, dear listener, now we have robotic coffee kiosks.

We don't have human baristas, baristas who makes coffee, but we may have robotic coffee kiosks. You can say that robots can deliver food, can make coffee, and surely they're important. Robots can affect our life. Effect is a verb, a effect, or you can say they can have an influence on our life. Okay, or they can have an effect on our life, an effect on, or affect something, affect our life. Oh, Rory, you've used your favorite phrase of verb, wind up.

Yes, wind up. I do like wind up. It's like end up. You can end up having more time, end up doing something, or you can wind up having lots of free time because everything is done by a robot. What about this responsibility? What do you do with responsibility? So you just, you do it, your robots. No, off you go, clean my windows. Oh, you offload the responsibility.

So the responsibility is something you carry, but if you offload it, then you give it to another person or thing. Yeah, so you can offload the responsibility to robots, right? Yes. But if your job is reprimatur, you know, Placed by a robot, you can end up destitute. The third super adjective in this episode, destitute. It's not really a super adjective, to be honest.

It doesn't describe anything complex. It's just you could end up homeless. Without money, food or possessions. Possessions, what we have. So, for example, floods left many people destitute. So no money, no home, nothing. Many businesses are employing humanoid robots. Okay.

as customer service representatives. Humanoid robots like robots with a face like people have. These machines, these humanoid robots, function as people. So they are designed to resemble people. So maybe there's a robot who looks like Rory. And they function like humans. Creepy. Oh, extremely creepy.

Please do not have a robot that looks like me. And also they have synthetic. skin. Oh, that's horrible. I know, I know. Oh dear, listen, you should really watch some videos on YouTube about robots and it's amazing. The robot with pretty much skin like we have and they do all the emotions. Oh my gosh, this is so scary. Yeah, and one robot which is called grace. So grace is the most advanced humanoid healthcare robot. Health care robot. Grace can recognize emotions. shows empathy, okay, and speaks and understands 100 languages. Should we talk about cars?

Yes, Rory, how can we paraphrase driverless car? Yes, well, a robot car or an autonomous vehicle. Oh my God, what a merciful, autonomous vehicle. Or automated car, automated car, autonomous car, robot operated car, or driverless car, or electric car. or electric car, assuming it's been safety tested. So this car has been safety test. And here you can say human drivers. So it could be safer than human drivers.

Usually we don't say humans, people, humans, but here in this topic you can say humans versus robots. I feel like the driverless car might be a better driver than most of the human drivers that I know. You should see some of the driving in my hometown. It is absolutely spectacular. So you can say it's safer or more efficient. More efficient, like more productive, more effective than human drivers. Robots will never take over the world.

Well, at least they won't take over teaching, hopefully. On the subject of teaching, the reflection activity for today is pick one piece of vocabulary or one phrase that you really liked and send it to me on my Instagram and I'll be happy to have a look at what people are sending me there. This is just to help people remember the words and phrases more effectively for their exam.

Bye. Bye. Are you interested in robots? Well, I mean, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't these days. Machines and machine intelligence have taken over so many of the functions of our daily lives.

It would be short-sighted not to have an interest, really. Would you like to have robots in your home? Yeah, why not? I love the idea of having a machine, you know, going around, doing all the chores that I wouldn't want to do. To be honest, who wouldn't want that? Unless they were sentient or sapient, of course, because that's kind of on par with slavery.

But as they are right now, that would be a great idea. Are robots important? Well, that depends on the kind of world that you want to live in, really. Like, if you want to work less and have more free time in order to do things, because, well, your time's been freed up by machines, then they would be very important for this. Although you might have a job that you would be threatened by having so many machines in your life,

so that's something that you need to think about in advance. How can robots affect people's lives? It could go either way, frankly. You could wind up having more free time just by offloading the responsibility onto robots. Although, on the other hand, if your job was taken over by machines, before the systems were in place to cope with this, or to address the problem,

then you might wind up destitute. So it's important to keep these things in mind when we're talking about the advantages of robots. Would you like to drive a robot-operated car? I'm not sure about the phrasing of that question, to be honest with you. I mean, if it's a robot car, then who is driving? Me? You're the robot. But assuming you mean it's an autonomous vehicle that's driving itself, then, yeah, assuming it's been safety tested,

I don't see why not.