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.”
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.
Boston Dynamic’s robots are works of art - the pinnacle of engineering - but its all designed movement. By this I mean the control systems, their movement plans - it is built and designed by experts in their field. It’s not quite as simple as “go from A to B and do some parkour on the way”. There’s a very large gap between “what is mechanically possible to do” and “Just let the robot figure out how to do that”.
Mechanically we’re ahead of software for manipulation and kinodynamic planning.
I’m actually working on this problem right now for my master’s capstone project. I’m almost done with it; I can have it generating a series of steps to try and fetch me something based on simple objectives like “I’m thirsty”, and then in simulation fetching me a drink or looking through rooms that might have a fix, like contextually knowing the kitchen is a great spot to check.
There’s also a lot of research into using the latest advancements in reasoning and contextual awareness via LLMs to work towards better more complicated embodied AI. I wrote a blog post about a lot of the big advancements here.
Outside of this I’ve also worked at various robotics startups for the past five years, though primarily in writing data pipelines and control systems for fleets of them. So with that experience in mind, I’d say we are many years out from this being in a reasonable product, but maybe not ten years away. Maybe.
Maybe when they marry robots up with AI,
Do you want skynet?! Cause that’s how you get skynet!
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.
Yeah, I’m all for automating menial boring work as that will free up a ton of creative potential. I fear, however, this might just allow corporations to further their grip on our society unfettered. We need governing bodies immune to profit capture if we’re to utilize all that human creative potential.
Totally agree with you there. Corporations have way too much power in our culture.
I don’t know why but that big red arrow pointing out the robot in the background is hilarious.
Workers were always going to be replaced and automated pretending otherwise is disingenuous and caters to the absolute most inept among us.
People need to start bitching about taxing these organizations and supporting UBI.
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More than UBI we need to empower democratic ownership through things like worker and community lead cooperatives. As well as better systems of education and training for a quickly changing world.
If the only reason people get UBI is to placated them then when we can be ignored or surpressed instead we will be.
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 😏
Thanks god there is a giant red arrow, I would have never spotted the robot otherwise.
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…
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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.
That won’t calm workers’ fears of being replaced.
no shit
“Our robots will cost less than half of minimum wage per hour to run! But don’t worry, we definitely won’t continue optimizing our profits.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In June 2021, the company introduced a fleet of four robots named after characters from “Sesame Street” and “The Muppets,” — Bert, Ernie, Scooter, and Kermit.
In November 2022, Amazon introduced Sparrow, a picking robot arm with a suction cup hand that’s meant for handling individual items in the warehouse inventory.
“Digit can move, grasp, and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways.”
“We are passionate about technology that makes the work experience of our employees safer, easier, and less repetitive,” Amazon says on its website.
“Doing so gives our employees the time and opportunity to take a step back, look at how orders are moving though our sites, and find new ways to delight and serve our customers.”
Amazon has pushed back on these concerns, saying that its robots will only create new categories of jobs within the company.
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