4 ms·
"But let’s talk about today’s “frontier” of jobs that haven’t been “automated away”. There’s one category that in many ways seems surprising to still be “with u
by cryptozeus 4y ago
"But let’s talk about today’s “frontier” of jobs that haven’t been “automated away”. There’s one category that in many ways seems surprising to still be “with us”: jobs that involve lots of mechanical manipulation, like construction, fulfillment, food preparation, etc. But there’s a missing piece of technology here: there isn’t yet good general-purpose robotics (as there is general-purpose computing), and we humans still have the edge in dexterity, mechanical adaptability, etc. But I’m quite sure that in time—and perhaps quite suddenly—the necessary technology will be developed (and, yes, I have ideas about how to do it). And this will mean that most of today’s “mechanical manipulation” jobs will be “automated away”—and won’t need people to do them."
- dx034 4y agoAbsolutely. We've been great at building AI in software, but hardware is still absolutely lacking. Robots are nowhere near usable for even simple tasks, at least if they don't follow the same pattern each time. Just look at households, there's still no robot that can empty a dishwasher reliably (unless maybe you build a specialized one for just that task), while it's a task much simpler than what GPT-4 can perform on the software side.
- mlboss 4y agoI read somewhere that two dishwashers are the solution. Put dirty dishes in one and pick clean from another one. Then switch roles. No robot needed
- dx034 4y agoDishwashers were just an unimportant example. Construction, retail and logistics are examples where there's a lot of very simple tasks that robots cannot perform and that pay very poorly.
- zamnos 4y agoI wouldn't hold your breath either, Google shut down their attempt. https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23613214/everyday-robots-google-alphabet-shut-down https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/24/23613214/everyday-robots-...
- tsunamifury 4y agoTwo thoughts: The AI will help us build the hardware faster The collapse of the knowledge and service economy will cut into taxes faster than any other sector. This will incite governments to do something very fast.