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Psychomadeye t1_ja6s58g wrote

Reply to comment by canadianpastafarian in Their future is AI, not ours. by [deleted]

AI is replacing work right now. Jobs seem to not be going anywhere.

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Nebula_Zero t1_ja7frpe wrote

DHL already ordered the robot arms for unloading trucks from Boston dynamics and their robot dog has been available for purchase for over a year. These things will only get cheaper over time and competition will catch up and lower the price.

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canadianpastafarian t1_ja7stxd wrote

What do robot arms and robot dogs have to do with AI?

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Nebula_Zero t1_ja82emi wrote

The robot arm robot from Boston dynamics already is replacing jobs at DHL. It is using AI to run because it is adapting to real world objects and can handle stuff dynamically. Not explicitly just AI since it's a robot too but it is already replacing jobs, not just changing work.

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canadianpastafarian t1_ja82rt3 wrote

I just mean that I don't think robot arms and chatbots are the same issue. It is related though clearly.

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Psychomadeye t1_ja85yc3 wrote

Correlation engines will replace work like the steam engine replaced work. DHL is going to find that maintaining those machines is in the long run more expensive unless they've got some seriously fancy tricks up their sleeve.

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Nebula_Zero t1_ja8vkj0 wrote

I doubt maintaining the robot arm would be expensive. The issue with automation right now is the entry cost doesn't justify replacing a worker but as wages for workers keeps going up, as do the cost of benefits and the costs from them taking days off and bathroom breaks, the robot becomes cheaper. The price of the robot will also lower over time. I also really doubt DHL just bought the robot arms with it just being a money sink, they wouldn't do it if they didn't think it would save them money.

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Psychomadeye t1_ja973sc wrote

No, they won't lower over time and those bearings and motors and reductions are extremely expensive for a reason. They are difficult to make.

>I also really doubt DHL just bought the robot arms with it just being a money sink, they wouldn't do it if they didn't think it would save them money.

It's probably not about saving money as much as it is about throughput. The engineers they'll have to bring on to maintain them, plus the cost in parts and power is going to cost more. Their hope is that they can take on more contracts because of this.

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Psychomadeye t1_ja85kv4 wrote

Hey real quick, say I spent a years salary on a robot dog. What can it actually do? You'll need at least five for every worker to match the shift time. So I'm wondering what the point is between picking up five of these dogs when I can pay a worker for five years.

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Nebula_Zero t1_ja8wm7l wrote

You act as if the price on these things will always be this high. It's like saying cars will never replace horses because the cost of buying a car is the equivalent to 30 horses. Right now it isn't practical to replace people with them but do you really think it will be like that forever?

The benefits are also that the robot works for no benefits, doesn't take sick days, doesn't complain, it doesn't take workers comp if an accident happens, it isn't late, and doesn't require legally required HR training on the clock. The machines basically work 24/7, they do need to recharge but when you get multiple robots you now have workers that will walk over and charge themselves and work in shifts nonstop reliably.

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Psychomadeye t1_ja960cu wrote

>The benefits are also that the robot works for no benefits, doesn't take sick days, doesn't complain, it doesn't take workers comp if an accident happens, it isn't late, ... you now have workers that will walk over and charge themselves and work in shifts nonstop reliably.

I can tell you've never worked with one. The ABB's that I've worked with were some of the most moody machines I've ever worked with. One of them was nice to me, kinda. One of them kept trying to take itself out with a plasma torch. That same one kept making direct attempts on my colleague's life. It requires engineers or machinists to train the robots right now. The code is quite annoying to work with but it's not the worst thing I've ever used I guess. The prices on these precision arms will remain pretty high, because the parts used to build them have already dropped in price decades ago. The robot dog, probably won't be going down in price soon and, being limited to a 90 minute runtime, isn't the most useful thing. You should take a look at the cost of the addons like cameras and arms and such. The prices are absurd and maintaining them is awful. You can find other machines that are more reasonably priced. But you get what you pay for.

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