Just like when they were going to replace all their delivery drivers with drones. It’s just bullshit.
Comment on Amazon is reportedly training humanoid robots to deliver packages
PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 1 week ago
No they fucking aren’t. That shit would be so much more expensive than a person. Liars, and not even particularly good ones.
feddup@feddit.uk 1 week ago
mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Yup, and people seem to frequently underestimate how ridiculously expensive running a fleet of humanoid robots would be (and don’t seem to realize how comparatively low the manual labor it’d replace is paid.)
AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 1 week ago
I mean apparently they’re partnering with a private robotics company. The picture is an actual model of the company’s robot. Whether or not they actually end up implementing this, they’re allegedly currently training the robots (and presumably, if nothing else probably getting some sweet federal kick backs to attempt this and further the current administration’s attempt to beat Gyna in the science and tech race).
For all we know they made the futuristic robot exoskeleton, took some fancy pictures of it holding a package, and that’s all she wrote but some rich assholes are slightly richer at the expense of the tax payer. 'Merica! 🇺🇲
emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I think it’s more a threat against employees. The robots can be used as scabs.
China had more scientists and papers well before this year. And China dominates particularly in fields like maths, computer science and manufacturing.
I can actually think of a lot of uses for robots in research. And, of course, there are a lot of robots in labs already; they just don’t look like humans.
AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee 1 week ago
More scientists, but research quality in China has been very poor for quite some time, and lead to a lot of questions and concerns regarding methods, data collection, and number of retracted articles
emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
I think it would be more correct to say that quality control in Chinese science is very poor. I have seen top quality research, and I have also seen crap that should not have been published at all. But the sheer quantity of output means that the next big discovery in <insert field> will be from China.
I don’t work on AI, but in my field I have seen the insane speed and scale of Chinese research. Now I’m from a developing country; the US can probably give better funding than we can, but I am inclined to agree that Chinese science does benefit from easier and better funding and a faster administrative process.
The big problem for AI research in China seems to be a shortage of high-end GPUs due to the trade wars. China is very strong in maths and comp sci, and they are finding workarounds, but it is still a pretty hard barrier.