When it comes to how humans fit into the AI-powered world they are creating, the tech industry seems to be divided: either they believe that all jobs, except perhaps their own, will be performed by bots. (VC Marc Andreessen appears to believe that his investment work will never be automated).
Or they believe that the bot revolution will create new jobs for humans while bots will perform the unpleasant and monotonous tasks of human companionship. The latter is the one most supported by historical evidence. The World Economic Forum predicts that 92 million roles will be displaced by current technological trends, but that 170 million new jobs will be created.
What does the future of bots look like for those who do not have the financial means or the intellectual curiosity to pursue a master’s degree in AI and machine learning? This is especially true for those who are currently employed in unskilled labor positions like warehouse workers.
When Amazon reported significant progress on Wednesday in replacing warehouse workers with robots—including its new Vulcan robot, which has the ability to “feel”—it gave a glimpse of one possible route.
“By managing ergonomically demanding jobs and providing opportunity for our colleagues to advance their robotics maintenance abilities, Vulcan is contributing to a safer workplace,” CEO Andy Jassy wrote on X.
In a single sentence, Amazon’s blog entry announcing Vulcan explained how the robot will assist people by collecting goods from the tallest and lowest shelves in the warehouse, saving people from having to bend over or climb ladders all day.After that, humans will collect objects that are only kept in the center or that the new “feeling” robot is still unable to pick up for whatever reason.
In the following sentence, Amazon discusses how it is preparing a few warehouse employees to become robot technicians because it is using the bot to perform more warehouse picking tasks.
“These robots, which contribute to the fulfillment of 75% of customer orders, have given rise to hundreds of new job categories at Amazon, ranging from onsite reliability maintenance engineers to robotic floor monitors,” the blog post stated, adding that the company provides a job retraining program for certain employees to acquire these robotic maintenance skills.
It is clear that this would not be a 1:1 translation, even though Amazon did not state so.To supervise the robots in the same way that it needs them to directly fulfill warehouse orders, an army of humans would not be necessary. Furthermore, not everyone would be interested in or capable of becoming a robot mechanic.
However, it is significant that Amazon announced Vulcan along with information about its retraining program.
This is due to the paucity of facts regarding what the post-robots-do-all-the-jobs scenario looks like for working-class people.(One founder of an AI business even told TechCrunch that if AI took over all occupations, people would somehow just survive on government assistance.)
Perhaps, however, “automation monitors” would be used in place of supermarket clerks, similar to how one clerk currently supervises each row of self-check. Workers would supervise the chef bots in place of fast-food cooks, and so forth. Operating a robot is similar to operating a computer in that, in order to be employable, almost everyone must be able to do it.
However, this entirely automated future might never come to pass.The great majority of employment in retail, restaurants, and driving are still performed by humans, therefore only the largest and wealthiest businesses may be able to use bots. Examples of these are Amazon and the automobile industry. For several more decades, at least.
Keep in mind that Amazon was attempting to market its Amazon Go automation technology to a broader retail and food sector. The retail sector was not particularly interested in Amazon, its main rival, and does not like it.Amazon later reduced its usage of the technology after it was discovered that it was utilizing people in India to view and label videos.These days, it is rare to see such technology in the wild (by Amazon or others).
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