Amazon’s humanoid warehouse robots will eventually cost only $3 per hour to operate. That won’t calm workers’ fears of being replaced.::The robot’s human-like shape is bound to reignite workers’ fears of being replaced, but Amazon says they’re designed to “work collaboratively.”
In isolation the automation of roles is a great thing, but the way society is currently run your entire quality of existence is tied to your job, and retraining and getting a new job is harder than ever and costs a lot.
If society made it easier for people to retrain and get better jobs and slowly replaced all those bad jobs with an automated workforce it would be better for everyone.
Can’t see it happening though…
People bitch about working conditions and the actual work in these warehouses yet don’t want to be replaced by a robot who doesn’t care about any of that? Yeah, no. I’m all for robots doing this kind of soul sucking work.
I’m sure we’ll get there eventually, but robots still suck at doing stuff like this. Maybe when they marry robots up with AI, we’ll have robots that can figure out what to do when there’s the slightest deviation to the operating conditions, like a piece of trash shows up on the line, or they get twisted 30 degrees off from their station, or a part of the line gets moved 2 inches. For now though, robots are only great at following pre-programmed instructions EXACTLY the same way every time. Even then, they still manage to fuck that up some of the time. I worked with welding robots for years that only had one task and one task only, to apply welds to car seat parts, and they fucked up on us all the time, on a daily basis. The technology will get there one day, but I doubt we’re there.
I work with a system of distribution robots and can attest to everything you’ve just said. The only caveat I’d add is that “some day” may be sooner than you think. Moore’s law is a helluva force.
Considering how each generation of Boston Dynamics robots becomes more and more graceful, I don’t see how the problems you suggested won’t be non-issues incredibly fast.
Also, unrelated to your comment, people are delusional if they don’t think this is the ultimate goal, right? Amazon’s reassurances are bunk - if they could eliminate people they would, they just can’t do without them yet.
Yep.
Just look at automotive manufacture robots. Saw my first one about 1980. Mind blowing at the time. That was a trivially simple one compared to what you see today.
Then saw a robot doing backup tape changes for a very large organization about 1995. The racks held thousands of tapes, they had adapted an automotive manufacture robot to the task. It was in place and running for a couple years when I saw it… Nearly 30 years ago now. Damn thing was fast.
Maybe when they marry robots up with AI,
Do you want skynet?! Cause that’s how you get skynet!
That won’t calm workers’ fears of being replaced.
That’s what the calming robots are for.
Just imagining what you mean by a calming robot is terrifyi- I mean perfectly normal and I welcome our robot overlords.
I can think of a few good ways for a robot to calm me 😉
Ayy now there’s a future I can look forward to 😏
But, isn’t replacing menial tasks what so many people clamor for?
I’m so confused.
Thanks god there is a giant red arrow, I would have never spotted the robot otherwise.
That won’t calm workers’ fears of being replaced.
no shit
Designed to work collaboratively, sure, I can believe that. How many are you going to lay off tho?
I mean, the workers can find another job to be useful to society.
Automation is a good thing.
Yeah, that has worked really well in the past. At least here in the US when people are pushed out of jobs to enrich capitalists we tend to find a way to criminalize them and warehouse them in prisons while their communities rot.
Well, if the people really cared about their well-being and doing less work then they would enact laws to ensure the redistribution of wealth.
Are you dense
