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AI is a big part of it, but the key linchpin for a lot of human labor in Amazon’s fulfilment centres is grabbing, the ability to hold an object, given its shape
by bertil 8y ago
AI is a big part of it, but the key linchpin for a lot of human labor in Amazon’s fulfilment centres is grabbing, the ability to hold an object, given its shape and structure. The efforts in that direction are very active (although not as much as AI in general) but slightly different. You need sensors able to understand pressure and very subtle micro-controllers able to apply exactly the right kind of pressure. You need to think about the ideal shape for a “hand”.
Another big part of Amazon-related workers is their delivery third-parties. Self-driving truck could help, but they will still need people to unload the trucks and deal with the idiosyncrasies of every location. There were plans to use autonomous hexacopters (“drones”) but I don’t think those make sense at scale and for larger items.
- erik_seaberg 8y agoGrabbing already works well enough for tape libraries. I wonder why they haven't switched from cardboard to reusable crates or pallets.
- mygo 8y ago> The efforts in that direction are very active (although not as much as AI in general) but slightly different. You need sensors able to understand pressure and very subtle micro-controllers able to apply exactly the right kind of pressure. You need to think about the ideal shape for a “hand”. You’re saying building a hand that can feel and sense is not really AI in general. I say that “sense” and “sentient” have the same latin root — sentire, to feel. From what we know about intelligence and its relationship with sentience, giving something a sense of feeling implies applying artificial intelligence... and is a step towards artificial sentience IMO. It’s definitely not a step away from it. Those sensors sound like nerves to me.