5 ms·

Foxconn boosting automated production in China

30 points by electic 10y ago

hourislate 10y ago
We're all in for some hurt but just think how screwed some countries are going to be. India comes to mind, they will miss this whole cycle of using manufacturing to bring the majority of folks out of poverty, it will pass right by them. As AI replaces call centers, automation replaces the factory worker, what's left for them? Interesting times...
- toyg 10y ago
  India is actually better positioned than most, what with their sea of IT infrastructure outsourcers and maintainers. It's Africans who will likely get screwed again.
- philipkglass 10y ago
  Poor Indians lack a lot of things that people in the developed world take for granted: sanitary water and sewage infrastructure, toilets, electrical infrastructure, lighting, refrigerators, washing machines, clean heat sources for cooking... All of these things can, in principle, be manufactured by AI instead of by human labor. The Indian government currently aids the rural poor by providing (e.g.) water pumps and electricity to farmers below cost. In the future the Indian government could import AI systems to build pumps and solar panels faster, better, and cheaper than human labor, thereby accelerating the provision of useful goods to low-income Indians. The main purpose of a refrigerator factory isn't to provide people with jobs, it's to provide them with refrigerators. If manufacturing goods becomes a lot easier and faster due to AI, that's going to raise India's material standard of living faster than if manufacturing still required a lot of human labor. Poor agricultural workers can skip over that whole generation-or-two process of leaving their villages for the city to work in export-driven factories starting from the low end of economic value. They can just enjoy the latest and greatest output from AI systems (assuming that their government cares at least a little about them, and I think India's government clears that low bar). In countries that industrialized in the past a lot of rural-laborers-turned-factory-workers preferred the landscapes and social ties of the countryside and only came to urban factories because of desperate poverty. If low-income nations have a chance to raise the material standard of living for the rural poor without mass migration to cities, because AI means you can provide abundant goods with very little human labor, that's a blessing for the global poor, not a curse. You might as well mourn for all the economy-growing switchboard operator jobs that low-income nations are being deprived of by going straight from "no rural telephone service" to "automated cellular networks for rural telephone service." Why don't they first wire the countryside for landline service and employ humans to manually connect calls, following a strict historical reproduction of the USA's development path? Because a strict historical imitation of the USA's development would slow rather than accelerate the overall process of raising the standard of living, that's why!
jerkstate 10y ago
What happens when there are no consumers left to buy the things made in these factories?
- Cheyana 10y ago
  At some point the robots and AI will take care of us, similar to how they did in The Matrix, or I,Robot. I'm sure we'll be fine.
- maverick_iceman 10y ago
  What happens when no farm workers are left behind to buy farm produce? /s
  - sdfin 10y ago
    They move to the cities and find jobs there. Then they buy produce.
- davidivadavid 10y ago
  Presumably the factories won't keep producing things if they're not selling them.
- zeristor 10y ago
  What we need now is the AI consumer.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dang 10y ago
Url changed from https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/30/foxconn-fully-automated-factories-robots-automated-production/ https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/30/foxconn-fully-automated-facto..., which points to this. Submitters: the HN guidelines ask you to submit original sources in cases like this, where one article is simply cribbed from another. Please do your due diligence on this—it makes HN significantly better.
joe_the_user 10y ago
Foxconn Electronics is automating production at its factories in China in three phases, aiming to fully automate entire factories eventually, according to general manager Dai Jia-peng for Foxconn's Automation Technology Development Committee. Which is to say, they apparently have not done anything yet but are rather stating their intention.
- yroc92 10y ago
  Foxconn's factories in Chengdu, western China, Shenzhen, southern China, and Zhengzhou, northern China, have been brought to the second or third phase, Dai said.
- Animats 10y ago
  Keep reading. "There are 10 lights-out (fully automated) production lines at some factories, including table one in Chengdu, AIO (all-in-one) PC and LCD monitor lines at a factory in Chongqing, and a CNC line in Zhengzhou. ... Foxconn has deployed more than 40,000 Foxbots, industrial robots developed and produced in house, at factories in China." The Chengdu plant makes iPads.[1] Foxconn refers to "table one" because they usually don't name their contract manufacturing clients. Apple used to have robotic assembly lines in Fremont, CA.[2] Then they switched to cheap outsourced manual labor. [1] http://micgadget.com/12674/the-inside-story-of-the-new-foxconns-chengdu-factory/ http://micgadget.com/12674/the-inside-story-of-the-new-foxco... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk306ZkNOuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk306ZkNOuc
Pica_soO 10y ago
Give me handouts or i shot the hostage, eh fire the workforce, and eliminate all dependencies. Im serious- if i dont get a plane to china, somebody gets it. Just what would happen if those governments would agree upon anti-automation laws and taxes for any country that relies on them?

30 points by electic 10y ago

We're all in for some hurt but just think how screwed some countries are going to be. India comes to mind, they will miss this whole cycle of using manufacturing to bring the majority of folks out of poverty, it will pass right by them. As AI replaces call centers, automation replaces the factory worker, what's left for them? Interesting times...

toyg 10y ago
India is actually better positioned than most, what with their sea of IT infrastructure outsourcers and maintainers. It's Africans who will likely get screwed again.
philipkglass 10y ago
Poor Indians lack a lot of things that people in the developed world take for granted: sanitary water and sewage infrastructure, toilets, electrical infrastructure, lighting, refrigerators, washing machines, clean heat sources for cooking... All of these things can, in principle, be manufactured by AI instead of by human labor. The Indian government currently aids the rural poor by providing (e.g.) water pumps and electricity to farmers below cost. In the future the Indian government could import AI systems to build pumps and solar panels faster, better, and cheaper than human labor, thereby accelerating the provision of useful goods to low-income Indians. The main purpose of a refrigerator factory isn't to provide people with jobs, it's to provide them with refrigerators. If manufacturing goods becomes a lot easier and faster due to AI, that's going to raise India's material standard of living faster than if manufacturing still required a lot of human labor. Poor agricultural workers can skip over that whole generation-or-two process of leaving their villages for the city to work in export-driven factories starting from the low end of economic value. They can just enjoy the latest and greatest output from AI systems (assuming that their government cares at least a little about them, and I think India's government clears that low bar). In countries that industrialized in the past a lot of rural-laborers-turned-factory-workers preferred the landscapes and social ties of the countryside and only came to urban factories because of desperate poverty. If low-income nations have a chance to raise the material standard of living for the rural poor without mass migration to cities, because AI means you can provide abundant goods with very little human labor, that's a blessing for the global poor, not a curse. You might as well mourn for all the economy-growing switchboard operator jobs that low-income nations are being deprived of by going straight from "no rural telephone service" to "automated cellular networks for rural telephone service." Why don't they first wire the countryside for landline service and employ humans to manually connect calls, following a strict historical reproduction of the USA's development path? Because a strict historical imitation of the USA's development would slow rather than accelerate the overall process of raising the standard of living, that's why!

jerkstate 10y ago

What happens when there are no consumers left to buy the things made in these factories?

Cheyana 10y ago
At some point the robots and AI will take care of us, similar to how they did in The Matrix, or I,Robot. I'm sure we'll be fine.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
What happens when no farm workers are left behind to buy farm produce? /s
- sdfin 10y ago
  They move to the cities and find jobs there. Then they buy produce.
davidivadavid 10y ago
Presumably the factories won't keep producing things if they're not selling them.
zeristor 10y ago
What we need now is the AI consumer.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dang 10y ago

Url changed from https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/30/foxconn-fully-automated-factories-robots-automated-production/ https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/30/foxconn-fully-automated-facto..., which points to this. Submitters: the HN guidelines ask you to submit original sources in cases like this, where one article is simply cribbed from another. Please do your due diligence on this—it makes HN significantly better.

joe_the_user 10y ago

Foxconn Electronics is automating production at its factories in China in three phases, aiming to fully automate entire factories eventually, according to general manager Dai Jia-peng for Foxconn's Automation Technology Development Committee. Which is to say, they apparently have not done anything yet but are rather stating their intention.

yroc92 10y ago
Foxconn's factories in Chengdu, western China, Shenzhen, southern China, and Zhengzhou, northern China, have been brought to the second or third phase, Dai said.
Animats 10y ago
Keep reading. "There are 10 lights-out (fully automated) production lines at some factories, including table one in Chengdu, AIO (all-in-one) PC and LCD monitor lines at a factory in Chongqing, and a CNC line in Zhengzhou. ... Foxconn has deployed more than 40,000 Foxbots, industrial robots developed and produced in house, at factories in China." The Chengdu plant makes iPads.[1] Foxconn refers to "table one" because they usually don't name their contract manufacturing clients. Apple used to have robotic assembly lines in Fremont, CA.[2] Then they switched to cheap outsourced manual labor. [1] http://micgadget.com/12674/the-inside-story-of-the-new-foxconns-chengdu-factory/ http://micgadget.com/12674/the-inside-story-of-the-new-foxco... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk306ZkNOuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk306ZkNOuc

Pica_soO 10y ago

Give me handouts or i shot the hostage, eh fire the workforce, and eliminate all dependencies. Im serious- if i dont get a plane to china, somebody gets it. Just what would happen if those governments would agree upon anti-automation laws and taxes for any country that relies on them?