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Amazon is reportedly training humanoid robots to deliver packages

⁨321⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.theverge.com/news/680258/amazon-training-package-delivery-humanoid-robots

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  • ch00f@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Amazon announced using drones in 2014. In pop culture, drone delivery is like an assumed common practice. Yet fucking nobody gets their packages delivered by drone. It’s been over a decade.

    These robots are vaporware. Amazon will get a stock bump and that’s the whole point.

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    • Buckshot@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, humans regularly deliver stuff wrong on our street. There is no way robots will manage. I get packages for both by neighbours and they get mine more often than correct deliveries and one of my neighbours is a business.

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      • Dojan@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        At my old workplace we ended up getting like a thousand toilet seats delivered to us. We were a web publishing firm.

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      • ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Stop redirecting them. Make it cost them.

        Tell your neighbors to file an “it arrived late” or “it didn’t arrive” complaint. Get two and send one back. Their fault for being shit companies.

        If something is delivered to you by mistake, it’s not your responsibility to fix the mistake, you just got free stuff.

        If it goes through USPS, it might be a federal offense to open stuff delivered via USPS, but is that true of third party parcel delivery? Almost certainly not, because USPS is a government org and those third party shit delivery companies aren’t…

        So now any package that’s delivered to me by anyone other than USPS… it’s mine now, and I open it to see if I want whatever trash my neighbors are buying.

        I used to try to fix the problem… but then I realized it’s NOT MY PROBLEM.

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      • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        What makes you think you can’t have individualized instructions for harder to reach addresses? After the first failure it’s pretty trivial to go out and fix it. Google does far more work maintaining maps and directions services.

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      • Zetta@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        What you just described is humans causing the issue, drome delivery would absolutely solce your problem.

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    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s a great point. Where are all those delivery drones? Lol

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    • andybytes@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You are wise

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    • Zetta@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Amazon just rolled out their first production drone delivery SSD site in Phoenix. It’s sorta shot though.

      Zipline is way more interesting and I can wait for them to go live in my area.

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    • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Airspace rules are a huge factor there. I see delivery robots on the sidewalk often enough though.

      I suspect most companies are still waiting out the testing and waiting for costs to be reduced.

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  • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Companies like Amazon would do anything. Except paying living wages

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    • meliodas_101@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yep.

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    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Remember that hitch hiking robot that made it across Canada but only made it to New Jersey (started in NYC) in America? These will 100% get the same treatment everywhere on earth.

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      • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Not only Canada, but also Japan and all of Europe.
        The main difference is that these robots kind of deserve it. Not “personally” but for what they represent.

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    • Finch9678@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That is how you get to be this big.

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  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Wanna bet its 7000 Indian workers again?

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    • Finch9678@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Package delivery simulator, pre-order on steam

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      • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Evil genius level right here

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    • Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      just like thier shop and go stores, were mostly india controlled.

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  • NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Anything to avoid one of the richest people in the world paying his employees a livable wage.

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  • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Bro that is so gonna get HitchBot’ed

    a photo was tweeted, showing that the robot had been stripped “beyond repair” and decapitated in Philadelphia. The robot was located by some people following its progress on its website. The head was never found.

    Also, like… if you wanna replace human workers, fine, just give us the UBI.

    Otherwise, riots would be justified.

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    • janus2@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      as someone who has spent time living in Philly what were they THINKING lmfao

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    • cute_noker@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Just one shitty makeshift EMP and that thing is toast.

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  • VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I imagine they will scale back robot design and just throw from the truck.

    Image

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    • 5too@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      …okay, I really want to know the story behind that picture!

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      • Atropos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I’m gonna say CGI. Arm isn’t mounted to the floor (I can tell by the pixels), no cables going to the arm, holding the bowling ball like that is extremely unsafe.

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      • VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        “…creation of motion graphics designer Tom Coben…” mashable.com/…/bowling-robot-video-computer-gener…

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  • frazw@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Amazon 1 year after launch: Unfortunately, the space needed for robots in the van means that the van has to return to base 5 times more often to reload with the actual packages and the extra weight of robots more than doubles the weight of the van being lugged around in the form of heavy robots. So that’s why we are having to charge more for delivery and why it is taking longer for you to get your packages. But at least we can pay fewer salaries.

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    • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Also we don’t pay taxes but will fuck up the roads with the extra weight. Good luck driving over potholes suckers!

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  • Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The robot then encounters the entirely unpredictable American rural south

    staircases half busted up surrounded by weeds and gravel roads full of holes

    wageslave.exe has encountered an internal exception and must close

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    • MrShankles@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wonder how much copper is wired up in those things

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      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I’m pretty sure it will be a valuable amount of copper.

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  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I tend to disbelieve this, mainly because a humanoid robot would be overkill. Custom-purpose robots would be much cheaper to design, build and maintain, with fewer potential failure points.

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    • crimsonpoodle@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Eh I dunno there’s so much infrastructure that is human centric; if you could make a humanoid robot it could easily traverse all the human designed places

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      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The driver would have to look at the location and decide yeah, this is a straight walkway and two steps up to a porch, I’ll use the drone, or no there’s a gate and some lumpy grass, or whatever, I’ll get my ass out of the truck.

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      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Like what… stairs?

        Just leave the package at the bottom of the stairs like humans do.

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  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Be funny if hackers hacked them to kill CEOs.

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  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Amazon still can’t even figure out how to reliably get human drivers door passcodes into an apartment building, and then into its mail/package locker room.

    The map system it uses for for telling drivers how to get around a city to make deliveries is also garbage, can’t account for traffic, punishes people for using faster side routes to get to the same place, tells you to park in areas that either have no parking at all, or where parking there would majorly disrupt traffic, or assumes available street parking will always exist in places and times it almost never does.

    I once did an Amazon delivery gig where they booked me in for the time slot, I get to the FC, after waiting an hour they tell half of us: ‘oops we booked too many drivers, so today you all get $200 for showing up and doing nothing, go home now’

    ???

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    • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Update: It is day 126 and Amazon still can’t figure out where my camera is.

      Image

      I know where it is. Their delivery driver stole it. (Yes, I just charged back my credit card. Their response was to send me an incredibly smarmy and condescending form email asking why, as if they don’t already know. And they lost the chargeback dispute, obviously.)

      So maybe their robots won’t steal your package. They’ll just yeet it into a bush 65536 yards from your house in a random direction instead. On the bright side, you might occasionally get a package that belongs to someone else from the other side of town dropped on your lawn.

      To both this and that I say no thanks; I don’t use Amazon anymore.

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      • echodot@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Amazon sent my next door neighbour a photograph of my back garden indicating they delivered the package. In the photo you can see my front door with the obviously wrong house number.

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    • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      or assumes available street parking will always exist in places and times it almost never does.

      That explains all the amazon vans parked in the middle of the fucking street.

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      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yep!

        Drivers have to visit an absolutely absurd number of locations in a small block of time, so if they attempt to park like a sane member of society, they’ll be fired very quickly.

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  • victorz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’d be terrified if that thing showed up at my door.

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    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Better keep a big furnace full of molten steel ready just in case.

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      • Bonesince1997@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        👍

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      • victorz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        brb popping out to get that right now

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      • Jakule17@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Gallium would do

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    • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Image

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    • Finch9678@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I’d be very glad and a bit richer

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  • Almacca@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They’ll be vandalised almost immediately.

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    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I prefer the term “beautified”.

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      • Allah@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        are you promoting vandalism?

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    • Finch9678@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Non-consentually arbitraged

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  • Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    everyone knows its just going to be indians in a data center in india controlling the bots.

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  • AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    If i see a humanoid robot delivering a package i will throw bricks at it and then pee on it, in the way a 3 year old would during a tantrum.

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    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I, for one, will certainly not loot it for parts, unless it has an unfortunate accident, in which case I’m just recycling trash that someone left out.

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    • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      No you won’t.

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    • FauxLiving@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I see you’re channeling the spirits of Social Media

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  • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Not in Philly they won’t lol

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  • skip0110@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Amazons “genius” packing bots will throw a tiny fragile thing with a medium size heavy thing in a box 16x too big along with a shred of packing material.

    Can’t wait to have that same “genius” applied to the actual delivery itself.

    Seriously, I make maybe 5 or 6 Amazon purchases per year. I would say at least 50% of those disappoint in some way: the item was misleadingly listed, or it was damaged in shipping, or it doesn’t arrive when the promised. I really don’t find it convenient at all.

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  • xektop@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    So, from what little research I did the robots cost from 5000$ to 500000$, as most articles point out the advanced robots cost 200000-300000$. In a lot of places around the world that’s like paying a human for 8-10 years. Humans are easily “replaceable”, where those robots have maintenance cost additional to the initial “investment”. How is that feasible in the eyes of the big money oligarchs? I genuinely don’t understand the end goal here.

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    • mustbe3to20signs@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I don’t think they really plan to replace workers with robots. It fulfills two other purposes:

      • Keep the work force humble.
      • Keep the stock holders happy. This shit simulates “innovation” and btw hinders real one.
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      • MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        if its actually feasible and it reduces cost, then it will be the plan. right now though, its bullshit. As soon as people start stealing and destroying these 5000-500000 dollar robots all of the potential profit goes out the window.

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    • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The labor aspect of class politics is complicated.

      But you don’t have to understand any of it to think stealing these would be cool as fuck.

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      • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The cost of an employee is far higher than just their pay though.

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    • lazyViking@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, because nothing new is ever reduced in price and improved upon after research phase is finished

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  • PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    No they fucking aren’t. That shit would be so much more expensive than a person. Liars, and not even particularly good ones.

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    • AcidicBasicGlitch@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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! 🇺🇲

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      • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Amazon/Bezos is probably getting some sweet federal kick backs

        I think it’s more a threat against employees. The robots can be used as scabs.

        which, until Jan. 2025, was one area that the U.S. had unquestionably dominated China

        China had more scientists and papers well before this year. And China dominates particularly in fields like maths, computer science and manufacturing.

        they are indeed going to try to replace scientists with robots

        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.

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    • feddup@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Just like when they were going to replace all their delivery drivers with drones. It’s just bullshit.

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  • Botzo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They can depreciate these assets over their useful life, because unlike your soggy flesh sack, these are capital expenses, not operating expenses.

    … For now. I’m sure there are libertarians that think you should be able to sell yourself as the depreciable asset you are.

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  • Jhex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    what? they gave up on the drones?

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  • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They already treat their workers like humanoid robots, so this tracks.

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  • last_philosopher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Let’s count the problems:

    1. Up front cost
    2. Maintenance cost
    3. Varied problems like different types of stairs, tripping hazards, etc.
    4. People attacking or stealing robots and their packages.
    5. Safety issues with 100+ pound metal robots falling on pets and children

    Any others?

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  • andybytes@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I just stop buying from Amazon

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  • thatradomguy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yo why tf can’t they just fucking pay people a reasonable wage AND give them sane working conditions? This is insane. Capitalism does not favor anyone except the rich. It’s time to tear down this wall of mediocrity and face the facts. No sense of government intervention will fix this. It must all be rewritten entirely.

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  • nthavoc@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They will train it so well, it will even collapse like a human when overworked! youtu.be/6Kp5qrCExps . I recognized that bot from the photo.

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  • Willy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    At first glance it looked like the robot has a tail. That would be cool and seems like it might help somehow. Add a tail!!

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  • candyman337@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I hate that!

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  • intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    humanoid robot: dances

    amazon: shock

    humanoid robot: makes coffee

    amazon: shock

    humanoid robot: delivers package

    amazon: friendly shock

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