It’s depressing that bulls**t like this is still allowed to go unchallenged. When in the history of capitalism do companies, out of the goodness of their heart, find better paying jobs for workers they don’t need any more?
The only way CEOs call sell this shiny happy future of jobs being automated away, is to be allowed to get away with lies like this. It’s long past the point our politics deals with the reality of automation by AI/robots. It’s already happening, and it’s only going to accelerate.
Humanoid robots will take over factory jobs within 5 years, Xiaomi CEO says
It’s 2008. I’m working at Micron, a corporation that’s notorious for periodic mass layoffs. We’re explicitly forbidden from discussing the trajectory of the company. Something feels off, so I discreetly ask 3 friends, who work higher up in 3 different departments, if they’ve noticed anything different lately. I come to the conclusion that another mass layoff is imminent, and I quietly warn my 2 closest colleagues to begin looking for employment elsewhere. Word spreads.
One week later, I’m walked out by security guards and only my best friend will speak to me because everyone is outraged that I was lying about a layoff, and that I was actually fired for assaulting a supervisor. That’s the official company explanation. Even my best friend condemns me for the assault that he insists I committed.
Nobody stops to wonder how bizarre a story it is that the friendly and comical woman they know would abruptly attack a man at work. And 2 weeks after my scandalous departure, 1800 shocked pikachu employees are laid off.
We’re fucked because people never want to face the truth.
Okay, how bad are labor laws in your country for even half of this to be legal?
Not to dunk on the other guy but from my experience even if the country has laws against this nothing will be done unless the wronged person pushes to get something done. The laws don’t matter if citizens don’t make sure they’re enforced.
People, know your labor rights and use them. No, don’t try to take the high road. A lot of companies expect you to take the high road and trample over you. I know it’s stressful but I can guarantee you’ll feel so much better when the big guy gets fucked by the law.
s/guy/girl/i, Assuming you are refering to the commentor of the comment which had a comment you commented to.
I’m watching a toothpaste company spend 3 million dollars on a three arm robot to stack 25kg bags of potassium nitrate and it works about as well as if a kid made it with Lego mindstorm.
After watching some videos, this doesn’t work half as good as the kids stuff.
This stuff accelerates fast. boston dynamics was around since the nineties but its not until google X bought it a bit over a decade ago that people started to see what it could do and spot came out 5 years ago. The robot that changes its own batteries is a big thing to me as it realistically allows for a unit that can go 24x7 without being attached to a cable. If a robot is made that can maintain and do basic fixes if given parts for its own design and that will be massive as well and I don’t think its far away.
Wall-E is unironically a fantastic design for a self maintaining robot, and it’s sad that Disney’s ownership makes us unlikely to get one in the foreseeable future (not a plastic toy version)
It even talks in beep boop language to avoid seeming too human, unlike the direction big tech seems to be planning for most robot stuff
I like the robo simian where every limb can act as foot or hand. so move like a dog but stand and do things like a human but grab and hang and manipulate things near the ground and stabilize with three limb when needing high stability.
The tech is there, but companies are penny pinching on their employees. I doubt they have the insight to invest millions of dollars to upgrade their factories.
As I responded to another that is exactly what makes general robots different. If it gets to the point that you can buy one and set it to do tasks its no longer a big investment but a purchase here and there. Its like the personal computer. Before that places had to invest big time into super computer datacenters to use computing. Suddenly small businesses and people at home could buy one and utilize it. If an office can skip replacing its chairs and copier to get one one year and its worth the purchase, then it will become standard purchases that offices do. not millions. thousands.
Every factory i have ever worked at had automated systems that broke and management decided it would just be cheaper to hire someone to perform the task rather than properly fix and then maintain their automated systems.
this is why I said it was huge that the one robot could change its own battery and once it could do maintenance and repair on one of its kind its going to be an even greater leap. I don’t think that is very far away. Honestly the thing likely to sink it is enshitification where all repair parts and such will only be through a contract and maybe only authorized units will have the repair code and they will send one to your place with your monthly subscription. Which im like 99% sure will happen.
All I’m saying is most companies aren’t close. Not by miles. Now in certain fields it may be true, i only contract in pharma and oral healthcare. 1 engineer/project manager with 17 projects all getting done half assed is the majority of what i see.
Thats the thing though. When engineering an assembly line or warehouse with rails its a big project. If a particular store can buy it and use it in short order it takes on a whole new dynamic. I kinda hope it brings back small stores and local offices.
Thank goodness. I’ve been fucking other humans to make more human shaped humans, but I’m kind of bored of it, and I think I’ll resist my urges from now on. I’m sure everyone else feels the same.
These humanoid robots came just in time!
Edit: I’m sure glad this visionary CEO realized how to build and maitain a fully autnonous humanoid robot for less than the cost of a minimum wage worker.
I mean, they probably didn’t build it yet, but I’m sure they will this weekend when ChatGPT tells them how.
if robotics fuck up employment in China i promise you something is gonna happen other than “all the workers left out on the streets” and it’s not going to be out of “the kindness” of any company
the rest of us are fucked, but China’s been responsible for all serious gains against poverty globally for the last like 30 fucking years for a reason, turns out subordinating capital to an ideologically committed communist party means you don’t have to rely on neoliberal dogma to translate economic profits into benefits for working peoples’ lives
🤣🤣🤣
The things tech bros say are too amusing. So delusional; all of it.
