If robots are so dangerous to the future of our jobs, as a lot of people assert, one might fairly ask why governments don't place curbs on their development or how they are used.

But robot regulation has thus far won almost no support -- a few months ago, Bill Gates was widely shot down when he merely suggested a robot tax to slow the pace of robots into our lives so humanity can catch up. "Do I want to slow down robotic surgery? No. I want more and more precise surgeries with crazier and crazier gear. I do not want the government in the business of slowing down tech progress," Andrew McAfee, co-author of The Second Machine Age, tells Axios.

Why it's important: there is a likelihood that robotization — the possibility that automation will rapidly sweep through white and blue collar professions in the coming years — will proceed without policy intervention anywhere.