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For factories and closed environments, stuff is getting good fast, but for the rest of the "real world", no robot or AI is practical without human supervision.
by PostOnce 2y ago
For factories and closed environments, stuff is getting good fast, but for the rest of the "real world", no robot or AI is practical without human supervision. I automate physical things for a living and have thus become convinced.
The first thing that robot will do is start a dryer that a toddler climbed into because it isn't that aware of the world around it.
And that will be the end of general purpose domestic robots.
That or knocking over candles or fucking up something else simultaneously trivial and terribly dangerous in context.
I dream the same dream of a general purpose machine, but I think it may never be possible, and if it is we're a long way out.
- user90131313 2y agoHow about at first if we put camera on it and then someone from overseas checks around before performoning the task? for cheap but it can make it secure.
- unsupp0rted 2y agoI’d rather not have someone from overseas walking around my home via remote cameras
- user90131313 2y agoMany chooses Amazon and Google to listen their home + record their home every day. Most customers just buy things.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoSci-fi authors were worried about rebellions of enslaved robots, while the industry figures, why risk jumping into the unknown, when we can fake a smart computer with overseas labor and an Internet connection, and wage slavery we know how to handle... Anyway, if we're going to fake smart robots this way, why not just honestly call it what it is? Remote household staff. Might as well give them better sensors and actuators, but I guess this is giving humans too much agency and risk; what if the operator decides to hurt the "robot" owners or something? The vendor would not have that. Cannot have that. Humans are too messy to deal with. Or is this the short-term future of all automation? I look at my robotic vacuum cleaner now, occasionally pausing for a second or two while it figures out where to go, and I wonder - maybe in those moments, it's using some Protein Intelligence Chip to query a bunch of random humans somewhere?
- wegfawefgawefg 2y agoI trust an ai model more than remote humans.
- HumanReadable 2y agoat that point, why not just have someone from overseas control the robot?
- TeMPOraL 2y agoLiability.
- vasco 2y agoBecause you can just have actual local people do it right there and then? The point of a robot is to not interact with other people, presumably they will be much more expensive than having someone come over for a few hours a week to clean - the whole appeal is there's no other human involved to coordinate or be nice to.
- elsewhen 2y agoBecause one remote overseas person can watch multiple camera feeds at once which should make the cost of a human-in-the-loop more palatable.
- HumanReadable 2y agomm, good point!
- _njyk 2y agoThis is what happens with "autonomous" delivery robots that are operating on London campuses. They are actually controlled by "robot operators" in Estonia, though officially it's "AI". That being said, every day it's getting a little bit better.
- namaria 2y ago> That being said, every day it's getting a little bit better. Estonians are fast learners!
- tantalor 2y agoAI = actually Indians
- user90131313 2y agoBetter than Alexa recorder
- cruffle_duffle 2y agoAI, the secret sauce that powered Amazon Fresh (or was it Amazon Go?)
- chilmers 2y agoI recall reading many comments on HN confidently predicting that the moment a self-driving car caused an accident that killed someone, that would be the end of self-driving cars. But while they have caused accidents, and there has been resulting lawsuits and investigations by regulators, it hasn't put an end to them. And with the incoming US administration, I'm expecting far less legal and regulatory barriers to greater use of robots and automation.
- dtnewman 2y agoTo be fair, many many people die in car accidents every day. Yes, self driving car crashes are still newsworthy but you are up against a baseline that’s pretty bad. On the other hand, virtually no one dies from laundry, that I’m aware of. So the reaction to a single accident might be quite different.
- HappyPanacea 2y agoI found one instance from quick search: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/483581/child-s-death-in-washing-machine-ruled-an-accident https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/483581/child-s-death-in-... and there is also many stories of dead cats online.
- tacocataco 2y agoI was so paranoid when I lived with cats. I'd double check the washer and drier.
- isoprophlex 2y agoI do remember that time where people were being manipulated into eating Tide Pods... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_of_Tide_Pods https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_of_Tide_Pods
- PostOnce 2y agoDying in a car accident is normal, but having your (robot) maid kill your children or burn your house down is not. I think that will weigh on people's opinions of domestic general purpose robots when compared to robotic cars.
- moffkalast 2y agoEven if they need supervision, watching a robot hang up the laundry to dry is better than having to do it yourself. Like that old quote: "I love work, I can watch it all day."
- rwyinuse 2y agoI agree. So far I haven't seen production-ready robots doing even relatively simple agricultural tasks, such as picking tomatoes in a greenhouse and taking care of the plants. It's all done by cheap foreign labour. If that's too hard to automate, I'm not yet holding my breath for general purpose household robots either. Admittedly the videos in this article do seem promising though, would love to see how this tech would perform in a greenhouse.
- ac29 2y ago> So far I haven't seen production-ready robots doing even relatively simple agricultural tasks, such as picking tomatoes in a greenhouse and taking care of the plants. It's all done by cheap foreign labour. While they aren't widespread, there are production robots being used in many types of agriculture. In fact, it was even trivial to find one working in tomato greenhouses: https://www.arugga.com/technology https://www.arugga.com/technology (this one is used to pollinate tomatoes instead of doing it by hand or using bees).
- valval 2y agoOh yeah, the exact same way roller coasters got banned as soon as one failed and killed some people.