Credit: Boston Dynamics
It’s a shock video because Atlas is unboxing and racking shocks – sorry about that. But it’s also a shock because Atlas has always been a humanoid robotics research platform, not a commercial product – and this new video has us wondering.
The work of building cars is perfect for robotic automation – large volumes, heavy parts, high potential for human injury, high precision and reliability requirements – and indeed, there are already a ton of job-specific robots involved in the manufacturing and assembly lines.
But there are also still a lot of jobs that look much more random and disorganized – and that’s where humanoid robots seek to step in. Obviously, that’ll be one of the early applications for Tesla’s Optimus robot, and we’ve seen recently that Figure is pursuing a similar path with BMW.
We didn’t expect to see Atlas rolling up its sleeves on this kind of work, and yet here we are:
We’ve seen Atlas flirting with developing […]
We have seen this trend developing for awhile with AI displacing some workers and robots replacing others. The Capitalists prefer it this way. Machines and Robots don’t strike, or ask for wage increases. I suspect that what will occur with the displaced workers is the same which occurred with those displaced under NAFTA, not much. I wonder if any analysis has been done with the NAFTA co-hort to see how many were re-trained for positions which were comparable in pay to those which they were displaced from? Or how many were re-trained for positions which were lower in pay? I suspect a lowered standard of living for most is the plan.