Factories are heading for a ‘dark’ future - and it’s not what you think

[@Kalinga_3]

Basically how to replace 200 "unhappy" workers with 2 "happy" workers

[@Smile200-z4y]

Goes to show that coops are the way to go for the average person.

[@Smile200-z4y]

I chsnged my mind. Finland is doing it right.

[@trungson6604]

Meanwhile, according to a CNA Insider video recently on KZbin, there is now record level of unemployment in China's youth and new graduates, as high as 21.8%. Young people are more likely to spend money on new tech goods. What is the point of producing goods very efficiently using robots and AI that fewer people can afford them? Likewise, there are too many of empty houses and condos in China that people can't afford them. The world will need to re-consider and fine tune socialism in order to cope with the new reality of robots and AI displacing most workers.

[@Garylincoln789]

Communism is inevitable with automation.

[@G73Server]

@@Smile200-z4ywhata finlad doing?

[@edrcozonoking]

"people can move to a more fulfilling job". That sounds beautiful but, where in is an unskilled laborer going to go? Where is a highly specialized educated person going to go?

[@eypxmwgovmifuon7808]

Adapt or perish.

[@ClassyNeons]

@@eypxmwgovmifuon7808 That's an asinine and irrisponsible take to have considering how much of the workforce is made up of low and unskilled labor. Sure, many people will move up to better positions, but just as many if not more wont be able to. People who are too old, in poor health, or in poverty can't simply adapt and obtaining necessary skills/education takes time and money. It'll create a situation where there is oversaturated competition for both the remaining unskilled/ low skill jobs as well as jobs that would only require minimal specialized training or education. Inevitebly, a lot of people will end up unemployed for a period of time and obtaining quality employment will only be more difficult for future generations of workers just starting out. I don't think these companies have any obligation to care; increasing efficiency and output should be a priority. However, it's ignorant to think the problems it cause to the workforce (and in turn society) will just sort itself out.

[@beback_]

Yeah I don't think an economy where you need at least a Master's degree to do well in is sustainable.

[@viktorianas]

Go watch documentaries about South Korea, extremely well educated people work as delivery drivers, people don't even want to have children anymore, absolute dystopia, fulfilling roles are for very limited amount of people.

[@KingKong-]

& who will buy these products if no one gets job??????😜😜😜🤪🤪🤪🤪😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝😝

[@userMB1]

Fully automated factories still needs mechanics to fix them and perform maintenance. I work in a factory and we have hyper modern machines. When they have a break down, it takes hours to fix them usually. It took 1,5 years for the hyper modern line to run properly. However, when they run well, they produce twice as fast.

[@sebastianorye2702]

The holy grail is when robots can keep it running themselves, or even set it up in the first place.

[@undertow2142]

That’s how they will become ubiquitous. They will say the robots won’t take your job bc people got to 10:07 fix robots and robots can’t do some small aspect. That’s all great but then one day the robots can fix themselves and do everything that a person can.

[@ps3guy22]

@@sebastianorye2702 You grease my bearing and I'll grease yours

[@nczioox1116]

And those robots will never ask for a raise, will work 24/7, and will never go on strike

[@NAIVADA]

Who cares.. As long as we'll keep operating from our out-dated monetary system, we will never truly solve all our problems. Problems are NOT meant to be solved in the current anti-economy. Our problems are fundamentally technical, not political, not financial. All primary causalities can be solved by the wise use of our modern technology, and again, NOT money. Advocating a monetary system and not answering this with the state of technological capabilities seems just like a slap in the face to any thinking person.

[@dasiro]

there will be a HUGE amount of people on this planet without a proper job, not only because they're not skilled enough, but also because there's no more job for them to take. It started with automation of physical labor, but it is also rapidly gaining ground on mental and even creative labor. Society will need a solution for them, otherwise it will be utter chaos.

[@TL-rh1lf]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of long term thinking.. only what makes more profits in the short term is the most important in this system. I'm not sure how long a system like that can last.

[@Anonymous.24.]

Universal basic income

[@-cheshire-cat]

I was just thinking the same thing the other day. Our society is constantly inventing technologies that warp and displace our entire society with very little checks and balances. Entirely driven by short term thinking and profits, at some point they're going to introduce a technology in mass that has very real and serious side effects on everything, if they haven't done so already (Microplastics, pfas, AI, Social Media, etc)

[@beosliege]

Yea. How will the factory sell their product to a planet where most people don’t have a job?

[@Tubes12AX7k]

@@beosliege The ultra wealthy will ensure that they, and their offspring, will have jobs or will oversee (possibly meaning "control") the serfs who remain. There are a lot of dystopian and possibly violent outcomes that could happen, if you really think deeply about it. It will turn into fiefdoms at first, and could turn into genocides or starvation. Unfortunately, I'm really not kidding, it could devolve into that. The very wealthy will look after their own. The rest of us will be left to fend for ourselves, which could get quite bad.

[@Mrdachs88]

Automation is hard. I've seen it first hand. They replaced all the old machinery at my factory and put in a new computerized system. They ended up needing more people to run it and we produced less because it wasn't properly thought through. Happens all the time.

[@janeblogs324]

But liquidation is now more profitable

[@dekippiesip]

Automation requires a very very stable and mature process. If changes are being made to designs and requirements all the time it just isn't worth the hassle. You need a stable production process and well educated people that know how to make changes to the process if that is required. People are still very important, both the technical people as those that want changes to be made. The latter has to be constrained while the former need to be well oiled.

[@CC-iq2pe]

I see many areas that human workers are doing things that robots are doing in other countries. By having robots doing tasks which are inherently unsafe for their human counterparts, workers are safer. Also if western companies push to have more robots in the process lines, those companies are able to produce more products faster and cheeper. The down side is there will be less untrained workers. This will reduce the size of employees for those companies, but employee wages will higher due to their requirement for expertise.

[@dekippiesip]

@@CC-iq2pe the MVI(minimal viable IQ) does go up with every iteration of modernization and automation. The people that you do still need have to be better educated and more intelligent. With the exception of certain service jobs of course. Those grow too.

[@69memnon69]

This is exactly what happened at Tesla. Started out with heavy automation and then ripped out many of the robots to speed up production.

[@timp1293]

The UWA strikes will only accelerate this trend. The future factory may look completely different from today’s: dark, cold, compact for maximum efficiency as it is no longer built for human workers. Instead, it resembles a giant machine with raw materials going into one end, and products going out the other.

[@MaximGhost]

Now that the UAW stick is over, the UAW will be going after unionizing Tesla next. So, I would expect that Elon Must will put extra pressure on his Tesla bot development team to start deploying co-bots to at least minimize the human workforce by as much as possible.

[@СоюзниксОкинавы]

Well, ow would you fight fire in crumbled spaces...

[@FletcherHillier]

Shipping container systems would be over 50% walkway otherwise. People will have fully automated manufacturing and food production on their own property in the very near future. As we break down barriers to entry in manufacturing with consumer robitics like CNC machines and 3D printers, it will enable average people to produce complicated things.

[@MrToLIL]

I've been working with robotics for the last few years and trust me it's going to be awhile before we can remove the human from anything that requires a physical component. Even when it works 100% it still breaks down and requires maintenence. Anything that is purely digital though, not so much. It's kinda funny actually, we always assumed laborers were going to be the first to lose their jobs. But it's looking like it's the other way around.

[@paul1979uk2000]

That's the irony, that it's a threat to the creative sector first before manual labour. As for the threat to manual labour, the problem is with current robotics and automation, it needs everything to be setup in a specific way to work, A.I. changes all of that by making it far more flexible and adaptive to what's going on. Robotics are getting very flexible in what they can do, tied in with A.I., it could end up being a bigger threat to manual labour a lot sooner than some think, but I think we are safe for the next 10 years, after that, who knows with how quickly A.I. and robotics is advancing. Flexible A.I. and robotics is the real game changer here, that reduces the need for humans in almost any area of the workforce as it would be able to maintain its self, adapt to problems that come up and change as needed, something that's quite new and could revolutionise the work force over the coming decade.

[@TheRockyCrowe]

@@paul1979uk2000beautifully said 👏 my thoughts exactly, and I’m a bit nervous for the future over the next decade. Not everyone has the mental capacity to learn computer sciences nor does everyone want to (one of the most intelligent men I’ve met has a MA in computer sciences yet quit that industry 5 years in and prefers auto mechanic work instead of sitting in front of a computer) and even those who comprehend these networks will be outcompeted from a job if Ai advances enough to adapt and program itself. Fewer humans will be necessary to hire across several industries and that will intensify competition to the max as we fight for crumbs. People have proposed UBI but I’m doubtful government’s will actually care enough to implement a national welfare system - and def without any strings attached. Civil unrest is very likely.

[@shinseiki2015]

the robot atlas can do backflips, can you do back flips ?

[@MrToLIL]

@@shinseiki2015 Oh wow, I didn't realize doing a backflip was essential. Guess I'll have to go learn that now 😵‍💫

[@shinseiki2015]

@@MrToLIL if they can do backlfips and medical surgery, they will do your job pretty soon

[@rexmundi8154]

AI is advancing so fast it seems likely to me that any work done on a computer / phone will be fully automated before humanoid robots take over factories. As a machinist working in manufacturing, the level of sophistication required of a robot that would replace me is pretty high. Also the very expensive machines I run have a very long working life, so if you have to spend $7 million to update a shop to semi autonomous operation or continue to spend $100,000 a year operating your existing equipment, upgrading makes less sense financially. The bit about lack of workers rings true tho. I’m ready to retire and so are about 70% of the skilled machinists in the US. We didn’t train enough workers in the past 2 decades to replace us guys aging out.

[@David.Alberg]

Yes AI and especially AGI will do all the work for which you need a degree or some sort of license. But they so the work for 10-20 bucks a month whereas a human wants 3-5k guess who is gonna get fired 😂

[@zoeybella234]

Thank you, this was informative. I am currently assembling my dissertation on 'AI in call centres', what I did learn is that once you feed enough movements and measurements (data) of what you are doing into AI connected to robotic tools of all nature, the machine will map it so well through neural network architecture that it will learn to get it right. Scary studying to be honest, yet fascinating none the less.

[@rexmundi8154]

@@zoeybella234 My career spans the 80’s- now and I’ve went from working with 100% manual machines, thru the period of crude computer assistance, and into the current day. I now run a shop that has the most modern cnc machines and make parts for science experiments that go to space. There isn’t a single part I’ve ever made that didn’t require some degree of human touch to finish it. Granted I make one to 20 of something, not millions. As computers started entering the factory, everyone told me robots were going to take my job. And they did, to an extent, over 30 years. I now do the work 6 machinists would have done when I started out. But 30 years is a long time. Those other 5 guys had time to retire, retrain, or grow and learn to use the new computerized equipment. They had skills that translated to other jobs. But people who’s output is 100% digital won’t have the time to slowly adapt. I’m talking graphic designers, salespeople, call center, low to mid level programmers, project managers, cam girls, and influencers. Whatever % of your work is done online is how replaceable you are. And it’s happening basically overnight. It will have huge impacts on the commercial real estate market, coffee shops and lunch counters, and businesses that support office life. I think within 2 years, 4 out of 5 office workers will be redundant. An AI assisted worker will be able to do the work of an entire team. It’s going to be a very turbulent transition.

[@devinbuirge6410]

As someone whos automating a machine shop not really. unless its custom machining, as long as the parts needed have enough volume its very easy to automate and usually turns profits 1.5-2x as much as they would've been by hand. at our facility the only thing the machine operators do is deburr parts and move pallets and even that people dont want to do. Its crazy how lazy most people are nowadays. And like you said all our skilled operators are all retiring. Sucks how people are nowadays for the most part.

[@rexmundi8154]

@@devinbuirge6410 I make one offs for aerospace but I’ve been in manufacturing since the 80’s. Automation for 10,000-millions of parts is easy. They were doing that with cam driven screw machines in the 1940’s. So it’s all about scale. As more shops have automated to do large runs, the number of small job shops capable of traditional machining has reached almost crisis level. In addition to the cnc shop I run, I have a small shop at home with manual lathes and mills as well as an older prototrak cnc. I don’t even advertise and I could make a full time job of shaft repairs and such. My point is that most manufacturing has already been automated, or automates gradually as equipment ages out. The real danger of AI is for jobs that are highly digital. Whatever % of your job is done on computers is how replaceable by AI you are. For me, if AI could generate useful toolpaths and handle stuff like tool and material orders, I’d still have too much work. I have also had trouble finding workers who can show up and follow simple instructions. So a robot might be nice

[@MrC0MPUT3R]

7:43 As a software developer, the current developments in generative AI make me seriously doubt how much human "creative thinking and problem-solving" will be needed in the future.

[@jeremywolf9472]

Ai with quantum computer will be the combo to change the world beyond imagination.

[@pingpongpaddlehead]

thats cause u dont understand what consciousness is or where it comes from. matter exists solely because of consciousness.

[@MrC0MPUT3R]

@@pingpongpaddlehead lol k

[@pingpongpaddlehead]

@@MrC0MPUT3R 🤷

[@andrewhite1178]

Religious?@@pingpongpaddlehead

[@Aeternum_Gaming]

i love how companies openly admit "yes, the goal is to get rid of human employees" is seen as perfectly reasonable and acceptable. but when you bring up UBI for the millions of unemployed people you're met with "bootstrap harder"

[@hillbillyintheasia6122]

UBI for the millions of unemployed people more like billions.

[@Quackks00]

My question is, where will all the demand of low level low paying jobs go? There will always be a market/supply of people who are low skilled and can only qualify for those menial jobs. What happens to those people?

[@edrcozonoking]

"people can move to a more fulfilling job". That sounds beautiful but, where is an unskilled laborer going to go? Where is a highly specialized educated person going to go?

[@KevinBalaam]

If income is the issue, then Universal Basic Income may be a solution. If people being occupied and "busy" is the issue, then having hobbies and social interaction and volunteering, or just getting out and spending their UBI, may be a solution.

[@banksrobyou]

become a nanny

[@ClassyNeons]

@@KevinBalaam There will be some very dark times before the US implements such a thing but it'll probably be nessacary. I can't imagine society as we know it continuing to function without such a system unless the demand for low and unskilled labor stays the same overall

[@sygad1]

That is THE question, creative and intelligent people will have jobs, they are not the majority though

[@mig4868]

Those "more fulfilling jobs" won't have the same value that they do today. If these companies didn't want to pay millions of unskilled workers, what makes people think there will be enough high paying engineering or tech jobs for the unemployed?

[@TL-rh1lf]

Many don't have the IQ and cognitive abilities for complex jobs like engineering either. Most engineers have like 120-130 IQ. Average unskilled worker has probably less than the a 100 IQ

[@aurynaichi7030]

Isn't it amazing some guy can sit there and say that ideally, 100% automation is the way to go. If people aren't working, they're not buying your products. Yes, alternative jobs - robot factory maintenance lol

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

You can now work for 1/3 of your wage needing thrice the education to fix the machine when that thing broke.

[@pforce9]

The problem with factories is the limited intelligences of the CEO's. Elon Musk, knowing nothing about building cars or rocket science proved that the people running our companies and manufacturing facilities are pretty stupid. Even today, 30 million dollar a year Mary Barra has no idea of what is going on in the car industry.

[@hansmemling2311]

It was pretty funny when he claimed he probably knows more about the manufacturing process than anyone in the world. But it was sad to realise that people were taking that comment seriously and believing him.

[@robertvazquez2964]

It’s pointless to ask children what they want to be when they grow up when the reality is they’ll have to work in whatever there is available in that day and age and even more in a future where most jobs will be fixing robots

[@hueyskitchen906]

its pointless to have kids at all tbh

[@brightlight3520]

​@hueyskitchen906 yeah! just wait until after the total collapse of society to repopulate

[@hansmemling2311]

@brightlight3520 Not a bad idea tbh.

[@rsreston]

If nobody has a job anymore, how can they buy all this productivity and quality?

[@brianatippens3010]

We’d have to rethink the very structure of our economy. There came a time when we outgrew feudalism…I think we are outgrowing Capitalism. Working 40hrs a week for a wage to buy the things we produce may not be sustainable for much longer.

[@SolarpunkSeed]

they come together with other unemployed, and build it open source themselves. postcapitalism ftw!

[@Feuer-ks3rr]

They said the same about human computers, human calculators, pre-industrial jobs, etc.

[@SinCity4o1]

Im a Design Engineer and we have a robot at our company that works 24/7 grinding and deburring .

[@jeanalexandre1105]

Remember for every job you cut. There is one more person that cannot afford this product. Or service

[@maxxx765]

this is not how the economy works😂

[@snowflakemelter7171]

They get a new job?

[@heartborne123]

it's fun that companies do not bother to think that people have no money, wouldn't buy the products and services from these companies

[@johndoe2-ns6tf]

that's why i keep saying: they are milking the cow as much as they can until she dies. When we reach that point, there will be so few humans with tech skills or any other skills for that matter, that a new dark ages will come. But this time will be even worse.

[@Feuer-ks3rr]

On the positive side, the food becomes cheaper and therefore more affordable for the consumers. This is a positive direction for poor countries where food is scarcely available

[@heartborne123]

@@Feuer-ks3rr cheaper food? oh you mean that super processed food and veges grown on chemics

[@Feuer-ks3rr]

@@heartborne123 Lol, as if food grown by farmers is organic. Corporates will have to bow down to regulations when it comes to food safety. If you look at the current state of how food is grown in poor countries, you'd see farmers spraying it heavily with insecticides even more than the regulated amount allowed. Source: I'm from a third world country, and people don't even trust the local farmers and have to choose which looks 'healthy' to consume.

[@Feuer-ks3rr]

@@heartborne123 as if fresh food grown by farmers is entirely organic. I'm from a third world country and the food that you get from the local market is heavily sprayed by pesticides.

[@shaider1982]

I have read about Fanuc being a leader in robotics and has robots making other robots back in the 1980's, I think. Nice to know they are still thriving.

[@devinbuirge6410]

Work for a company that has about 140 fanuc robots and can atest how awesome they are.

[@Duncan_1971]

A lot of CNC machines also have Fanuc controls. I've run a few & they're very reliable and easy to program, set & operate.

[@metricdeep8856]

Robots making robots?..lol. That's still a pipe dream 2023. Nothing runs on its own.

[@brycejohansen7114]

The reasons why these companies are doing this (save on costs and make profits) are the same reasons why it will self-cannibalize itself (no consumers to buy the products). Incentive is what makes our world work, so why have a company who's only getting universal basic income from the general masses? companies are going to be turned into caregivers for the masses or go extincted. And seriously, AGI isn't going to leave room for any human based jobs. I wonder if these managers and CEOs are going to realize they're next with AGI around the corner.

[@gmax876]

They keep saying robots will be working along side the workers, but it's more like the workers are training their robot replacements. Which is fine, just say it so we can move forward realistically. This is all in the name of efficiency and maximizing profits. We'll have less babies being born in the future, this might balance those changes.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

1 world countries may have less people but developing countries still grow in population.

[@jonathanrodriguez8219]

less babies, less life, more depression and anxiety in our lives. also, Imagine a world were robots and caregivers take care of the elderly and not their own sons and daughters anymore.

[@heitorpedrodegodoi5646]

@@jonathanrodriguez8219 Not everyone want to have babies, its fine, also if robots become more prevalent maybe the elderly will have more quality of life since they will have a robot to take care of them 24?7

[@Martian74]

My degree is in robotics and mechatronics engineering and I love this stuff. I made an aged care robot as a working prototype and it could detect falls, call for help, bring medication (biometrics to make sure the correct person got the pills), bring water, books, food etc. as at the moment there aren't enough carers to do these menial tasks so if they can implement something similar in aged care homes it would allow the workers to do more meaningful things like talking to the residents. It would help raise the level of care as there are more and more aged people and not enough carers to do the job properly. We need more robots in society.

[@chanman5600]

Haha, you are a bit naive and can't think laterally, if you did, you would realise as a business owner running the care home, I bet you would sack the redundant human staff to increase the profit. What if the robots can do the talking to the care home residents too.

[@the_expidition427]

@@chanman5600 The technical types are generally naive idealistics

[@marthajean50]

We don't need more robots in society. You just WANT robots in society. There's a difference.

[@Ilamarea]

So smart and yet so stupid. With AI, the robots will do the talking, and they'll be better at it. Cheaper, too. There isn't a job that won't be automated in the next 10, 20 years, including yours. This is the end of humanity, not just capitalism.

[@Martian74]

@@Ilamarea AI can advance very quickly as it can reiterate over and over again to improve itself. Hardware is much slower to develop and is slowing down over time as we reach physical limits, like CPUs with 4nm width lines, it is extremely difficult to go smaller than that. Other parts are already optimised, like capacitors, resistors, etc. but we still make new things all the time. Battery technology is progressing but it still takes a long time between iterations, if it progressed as quickly as AI can we would have batteries that would hold massive power and take seconds to charge. AI will take many jobs but autonomous robots will take decades to become mainstream.

[@kz11377]

Companies strive to automate themselves pushing the workers out of the equation of production. The question is: who's gonna buy if nobody works?

[@michaelmorales5435]

🫵 😭 🫵 😭 🫵 😭 🫵 😭 🫵 😭

[@wanderingfido]

There's just one big problem left to solve. People that can still afford to buy the product without breaking the bank.

[@internallyinteral]

Businesses don't need to sell to consumers, the government and other businesses will fulfill the need

[@wanderingfido]

@@internallyinteral The governments are too busy defrauding the treasuries for their war-fed retirement funds.

[@panjacek6674]

​@@internallyinteraland government and other businesses will get money from where?

[@unityman3133]

@@panjacek6674 from themselves? They own the means of production they only need money to pay suppliers. Consumers wouldn't provide labor and will die off

[@theravenousrabbit3671]

@@unityman3133 This is not how money works... money represents hours worked x skill. If nobody is working, there is nobody left to pay taxes or buy products. Contrary to popular belief, printing money does nothing.

[@tonysu8860]

I'm guessing the relatively low number of robots per human factory workers in the US is not too much of a problem. There is probably a fairly standard process of factory development replacing humans with robots which means that replacement isn't immediate or necessarily accomplished given available resources and technology. A lot of menial factory work is no longer done in the United States, it can be done at lower labor costs and possibly even lower automated processes overseas but that doesn't mean that all American factories are backward and inefficient. The stuff that's made domestically in the US at times can't be made overseas and might even be so new that robotics and automation might not yet be available for that work.

[@Mello_me]

who's going to buy their stuff? The unemployed? higher quality of life my ass

[@laviwastaken9845]

I work in gum factory. It's my 4th week. We have 2 robot arms one big purple and small yellow one. Yellows job is to scan whatever it was suppose to scan - because I never saw it moving and there are no labels yet at this stage - and the purple is moving plastic boxes. Why do I mention this all. Guy in the video said robots can work 24/7, well yes in theory, altho my experience from what I saw the purple robot arm gets an error every 5 minutes. So no, I disagree with that.

[@Greyalien587]

You are not thinking about exponential growth. Please compare the robot in your factory to figure1

[@t-bone9239]

thats a shitty robot then. I worked for a big automotive company and parts of the production run entirely on robots 24/7. Errors happen but they are quite rare and can usually can be fixed by an operator within a few minutes. Those robots are already far more productive than humans

[@EzraMerr]

As someone who is babysitting these type of machines (autonomous ones) , I can tell you that it's not coming soon. You need to focus on pointing out the errors with them before we lie to ourselves if we want to achieve perfection with these "Robots"

[@GeneralChangFromDanang]

The current corporate structure won't allow for this. Once the autonomous "solution" is implemented, the people in charge of the project walk away and pretend it went flawlessly. If they actually had to watch the thing run and fix all of the quirks, their bosses would start to ask questions and the project would've never gotten the go ahead in the first place.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

One bolt, one actuator, one circuit, chip, or electronic malfunction cripples one. No electricity also renders them all useless.

[@Thefabfarm250]

Just imagine going into a dark room full of robot arms whipping around scissors……

[@ShamileII]

Back in the day, my company used to manufacture copper cookware. These robots would have been amazing! My day was basically trying to get things done because an employee was out for whatever reason. I hated that "babysitting " part of the business.

[@darkgalaxy5548]

Consider; had there been robots back in the day your job would've been unnecessary & redundant.

[@dekippiesip]

​@@darkgalaxy5548 not necessarily. He may have programmed the robot. Or keep an eye on what the robot did. Handle exceptional cases now and then where the scale doesn't exist to make automation viable. If a robot makes m out of n jobs in your category unviable, you can keep your job if you belong to the top n-m employees in your category.

[@darkgalaxy5548]

@@dekippiesip The entire point of automation is to shed employees, not add more.

[@nntflow7058]

Uhmm, you would be jobless kiddo. Your particular job of "managing" are already being replaced since 2013.

[@kossaKSF]

Still, plenty of technicians and engineers will be on the floor shop of these "dark factories" to constantly maintain machines and supervise production processes.

[@JBoy340a]

But the numbers of these technicians will be considerably lower than the number of employees displaced. Not that this is a bad thing. As they say if a job is dull, repetitive, or dangerous, get a robot to do it.

[@kossaKSF]

@@JBoy340a that's how economy grows. 200 years ago nearly everone worked in agriculture. Now, it's like 2% in developed countries.

[@internallyinteral]

Not really. If you are a technicians or a engineer you see every year the machines break less and repairs are easier. Soon enough everything will be throw it away and put another one in it's place to work.

[@JBoy340a]

@@kossaKSF agree. Back when humans did a lot of dangerous things like cutting crops with a scythe, there were many more injuries and deaths in agriculture.

[@kossaKSF]

@@internallyinteral I work in an automotive components factory and I cannot agree with this statement. Present automated production lines are orders of magnitude more complex than the older ones, and there is a lot of work to keep them running smoothly. They also generate plenty of production data for engineers to implement constant process improvements. Therefore, there is much less labor work required, but engineers and skilled technicians are in demand like never before.

[@DaveBuildsThings]

Robotic manufacturing might save a company money by not having to pay workers. But if there is no work left for people to do so they can earn a living, who will be able to afford to buy what they build? Sounds like a dead-end solution to me.

[@Danuxsy]

this is the end of capitalism, it has always been about this.

[@donuthunter2621]

@@Danuxsy More accurately, it's the end of non-rich people. We need each other currently, eventually those who own the robots won't need people at all. Just have robots repair robots, have ai create their entertainment, pleasure bots to fulfill any desire. I really don't see why they would share. Maybe because they're really nice people at heart?

[@ovariantrolley2327]

Do u rly think we will let 99.999999 percent of humans die so that 10000 guys with factories can live in peaceful luxury. I wouldnt rule it out tbh

[@ovariantrolley2327]

We will see what happens. To be super rich requires being powerful but if 99.9 percent of humans are facing extinction they likely wont just go into the night, and the super rich wont be able to control ppl facing extinction, ( as long as we remain animals and are not cyborgs), therefore they wont be able to carry out a policy of 'let everyone die we dont need them' and build their factories because the basis of their power is not killing everyone but subjugating and oppressing people to stay in control. Thats my hunch. Technically at any point in history the king could have murdered everyone except the essential ppl who grow food and cook for him, maintain the horses etc but they didnt because they needed soldiers. Theyll still need soldiers in the future or even if they dont theyll need creative minds. Geniuses will never go out of fashion and the country which doesnt let most of its population die will still have an advantage. (Based on the axiom that human intelligence has an essential component that cant be replicated by AI) I guess they could let most ppl live in squalor while they have machines produce something for the rich, but I feel theres too many steps from here to there, itd require our consent. We are pretty sheepy tho so maybe we will give it. Interesting to think about what do you guys think?

[@Brad-ih5zh]

This is my thought, If AI technology will be employed gradually. humans can easily adapt, those who will lose jobs can use the AI technology to access trainings in different fields easily with less time and cheaper. As the AI technology developes the manufacturing sector and agriculture will become more efficient and eventually everything will become a lot cheaper. And in the end if human intervention is no longer required in any field, the government can take over and everything we need will be supplied free, unless robots will develop their own consciousness, then it will be the end of mankind

[@afbigfish1]

Its coming but will happen in phases. There is one phase that is pushing to dumb down skilled labor jobs to min. wage positions. This is happening in building trades now 3d printed homes for example brick laying robots etc. As technology increases at these neck breaking speeds to simplify and reduce complex manual labor these positions will be eliminated and require less skill. Instead of having a crew of skilled masons you might only need to have a few min wage laborers to load the bricks in the robot and one skilled guy to oversee and fix/adjust any tricky spots. The cost of workman's comp, health care on top of the pay skilled trades demands makes it a prime target for automation. Another area is to automate jobs that nobody wants such as fast food workers. Its coming for all and while sure there will be a need for human workers to maintain/fix these robots one day its not hard to imagine there will be robots fixing robots. even if that day never comes people like to say things like "they still need people to fix the robots" Yea, but the ratio of software engineers and robot mechanics is going to be 5000:1 Just look at how many jobs will be lost to autonomous driving. Truck drivers, taxi drivers, delivery etc.

[@the_expidition427]

That is a bias and generalization fallacy. What is claiming fast food is a job nobody wants? The robots break and companies do not want to pay for maintenance contracts and keep it current. Nor keep SLAs current either. Enters an error from no PM and it takes a week working back and forth with a nearshore team. Then after two weeks a Computer Engineer is found to send on site. 3 weeks of downtime with scheduling on top of that as that CE is headed to other sites day after day to work on things that go beserk. The more layers and complexities the more technical debt there is. Automation is to improve the output or yield you don't automate to simply automate

[@pauljeavons8878]

I wouldn't worry about autonomous driving. The finance world has lost interest in it. Too many failures going on. High controversy over insurance. And basically it was a bunch of geeks who talked their way into getting research money out of the finance world and they fell for it. There's alot of fraud going on in the tech world with attracting money when they know they can't deliver the goods for the masses.

[@happytrails1963]

Have been working on a lot of automation recently in cad. There has been more of an automation movement at places I work at too. Although they tend to overwork the automation putting more wear on the machines. At some point they need to be maintained by human.

[@jerrymckee4332]

Once AI and robots take over and make humans irrelevant, when nobody has jobs. Who will buy these efficient companies products? You’ll have a few managing and maintaining systems, but that leaves most out of a job. Seems like a very dystopian world ahead!! Go Six Sigma!

[@iwiffitthitotonacc4673]

There won't be a dystopia because the economy would collapse in the absence of consumers lol

[@the_expidition427]

Saving this

[@snowflakemelter7171]

​@@iwiffitthitotonacc4673Nigeria has an unemployment rate of 34%. It still manages with less consumers. The luxury market will flourish.

[@hillbillyintheasia6122]

@@snowflakemelter7171 The luxury market is middle class and rich ,lol . prodects be cheaper due more made cheaper . lol. you will need UBI

[@MrTwenty6point2]

"Go Six Sigma"? This is way beyond six sigma.

[@marklucas3140]

Fanuc has had assembly plants like this for a long time. With only several service technicians sitting in a monitoring center at the back. I believe one of their sales guys described this to me in 2002 at IMTS. May have been when I went in '08 though.

[@TaskSwitcherify]

I didn't appreciate how it threw my tomatoes into the carton at the beginning of the video. Bad robot!!

[@edrcozonoking]

Don't anger them😂.

[@fallout560]

I mean, is automation really that bad if demographics are declining? The jobs net lost don't matter as much because the population isn't growing

[@ashardalondragnipurake]

who are you producing for meanwhile demographics arnt declining because your replacing the population wich brings in a whole other layer of problems without actually providing the high skilled labor you do need meanwhile why are demographics declining, the lack of jobs that pay enough to make a family while making the community less and less a place you want to raise children in

[@internallyinteral]

​@@ashardalondragnipurakehighly skilled workers are already imported from other countries. That's why the US doesn't care about its own people. It's cheaper to take them from other economies

[@mikko3]

​@@ashardalondragnipurake Rich people aint having kids either. In a generation every country on earth will be under 2.1 births per woman

[@ashardalondragnipurake]

@@mikko3 rich people dont work less except the superrich, but those people are damaged its not just about having money its also about having time no point having a kid if you cant raise it

[@mikko3]

@@ashardalondragnipurake Even middle class aint having children. Money isnt a solution for birth rates

[@ifandbut]

This isn't anything new. I have almost 20 years of industrial automation experience and companies have been trying to get to lights out for years. There always proves to be some niggle. Some program isn't perfect, a part is slightly out of spec (if a spec exists), or slightly misaligned. Someone still needs to keep an eye on the robots incase they get any Skynet ideas (/s on that last part). Hopefully AI will make the robotic systems more flexible and adaptable to faults. But I think fully dark factories to be a ways out for some time to come.

[@coalhater392]

What do you mean ways out even 50 years is soon imo.

[@ifandbut]

@@coalhater392 Probably several hundred years. As technology increases we will have more things to make which means automation will always lag behind.

[@canobenitez]

I lost my job (illustrator ) due to ia, what career should I going to? I don't want to get lose my career again to robots@@ifandbut

[@Ilamarea]

@@ifandbut You severely underestimate the advances in AI.

[@t-bone9239]

i worked in an automotive factory and there were parts were only robots stood, that had light sensors that would turn off if no human operator were in the area

[@Goldenah]

I've worked in an auto manufacturing assembly plant: robots / machines break down often, requiring constant human intervention and repair. Sometimes they will delay production for hours. The biggest change has to be where these robots / machines sense their impending malfunction, like the kind of self-awareness people have when they are about to be sick, and swap themselves out for another.

[@hillbillyintheasia6122]

its called AI. happen in next 10 years .fact. self aware to stop and repair are to stop then call to be repair.

[@camgere]

They just need a robot that sets up other robots to perform any task.

[@smrk2452]

On the upside, robots don’t get bored, injured, or demoralized from doing repetitive work.

[@andeidan]

At the current rate humanity will shrink to 35-50% by the end of this century, yet factories increase peoduction trought automation but who will need their products?

[@Andreas-nb5tx]

People are being higly misinformed about cobots. They say you dont need safety and can work with it. If you read the safety regulations on robots and cobots(in europe atleast) then there are alot of requirments to make this happen. For example the product or the gripper cant have sharp edges and it cant move fast. So most of the time a cobot needs the same amount of safety as a same sized industrial robot. We havent seen a singel cobot cell thats actually up to safety standards. If your company have a cobot, get safety standards professionals to look over it. Many companys that sell and deliver robots dont know enough or dont care about the regulations and the CE approve them without them actually meeting the requirements for being CE approved

[@lilbruce]

Interesting concept as more and more factories convert to automation less and less humans are working . the question comes down to this as you place IA and automation into place in the manufacturing industry along with the food industry. how will you pay for these products. no one will be working which means a complete shut down. How will CEO's and high up executive make money as well. I guess in the future these products will be FREE .

[@CC-iq2pe]

The workforce of the near future needs to well educated and capable to perform complex repair/maintenance tasks.

[@Garylincoln789]

Which is why higher education should be free. Communism is the future with automation.

[@quantumphaser]

Next time with the internet asks you "Are you a robot?" You better start saying "yes"

[@123ElectricMonkey]

I would think in a food MFG keeping the lights on would be beneficial for pest control

[@KoQuesada]

Factories without humans, movies made without humans, kitchens operated without humans… and with what money are unemployed humans going to pay for your products, movies or food?

[@keithschaub7863]

If robots are replacing workers AND Europe’s workforce is declining….errrr…doesn’t that balance out or at a minimum those two trajectories are complimentary.

[@ihopethiscommentisntabusiv4670]

Most people miss the fact that populations around the world are SHRINKING, we need automation to replace jobs straight up.

[@cosak23]

with more people out of work as a result of even more automation, who will be able to afford the shaver , when they don't know if they have enough to buy food

[@snowflakemelter7171]

Gold shavers for the super rich will be the new market. I'm patenting that idea 😂

[@adamfrbs9259]

Make a Terminator robot for home use tasks, and every damn guy from about age 37 to 48 will save to buy one. Red eyeballs and all.

[@Nightzo]

And it's gotta be able to ride a motorcycle and fire a shotgun at the same time

[@Scapestoat]

"And it is not what you think". 00:00 Is it factories that have no lights, but instead passive IR sensors?

[@Nat_Ryder]

Do the robots know what to do if a part of the factory catches fire?

[@adryncharn1910]

Just have fire suppression systems in place. And they could make it so they react properly too.

[@JBoy340a]

@@adryncharn1910 exactly. And the fire suppression system is automated.

[@jonathanrodriguez8219]

and what about earthquakes?

[@889976889]

So on one hand “experts” are saying all jobs will be replaced in a factories on the other they say robots & humans will work together. So which one is it?

[@jonathanrodriguez8219]

The second one sounds a more humane approach. The latter is more greedy.

[@martythemartian99]

Humans don't belong in factories, they belong in stores buying the products made in factories. Of course without the jobs taken by automation, they won't have money to spend in these stores. (Stores? Maybe I should say buying online)

[@art3designer802]

I just have one question. If all are human will jobless, if they have not money to purchase product. Then how Company get profit ?

[@alfi-il7be]

same here???😅😅

[@ADobbin1]

Yeah robots are great until they glitch out. I've also see some that I'm pretty sure people can move faster and more efficiently than people. You just don't have to pay robots.

[@nukez88]

They just want to replace the work force "FOR OUR SAFETY". But continue to have their meaningless office workers who can take 5 coffee breaks and 8 cigarette breaks during 8 hours. The work force is the productive side. From the rest 30-35% are needed, but the rest is usually someone's family member or friend who got hired to do meaningless tasks around the office or to make the workforce seem bigger so that companies can get their bonuses for new employees from the government.

[@jonathanrodriguez8219]

YEah, how do you replace them? Those kinds of office workers are the real "irreplaceable" ones.

[@drakewauters2109]

Incredible levels of mass foolishness. No humans means no incomes, no consumers, no tax payers, and no back up plans. A world where almost no one knows how to do anything is a totally fragile world in an unfragile universe.

[@markmccormack1796]

There is no innovation occuring anywhere in the UK.

[@megamancards]

I feel like this is an ad for automation companies

[@shery9131]

can you tell what skills i need to do this?

[@ericgsch]

Someone has to monitor quality to insure the product is not garbage.

[@adryncharn1910]

Quality control bot.

[@JBoy340a]

Machine Learning based tools can do that better than a human. They never get bored by the mundane work.

[@freonsp]

Also the wef: "you'll own nothing but be happy😊"

[@mattgaming8717]

We need laws that retire or pay people who lose jobs to robotics. Isnt that the point? To be free of labor and robots work for us. All free of work and living full of food. ??

[@jayson657]

Full automation only works well with high volume and consumer products. Not everything that is produced is in high volume or consumer products. I work in aerospace where highly skilled labor is in demand. We simply don’t produce in volumes large enough to warrant spending millions on machinery and programming to turn out relatively low volume. It is actually cheaper for us to hire assemblers and technicians to build by hand.

[@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938]

This doesn’t just effect blue collar workers, it also effects white collar jobs…in Japan and South Korea there are AI CEOs and other AI “C-Suite” executives. AI physicians and lawyers are different knowledge workers are becoming a thing too…

[@anderbeau]

I don' t know why this is remotely surprising 😂

[@zbigniewkolpak4753]

If you fire all workers who is going to buy your product? You will be able to produce million cars but you will only sell 100k. There is a reason Henry Ford started to pay his workers higher wages. So they could by his cars. Also, all these robots need lots of energy to run, a lot of minerals to make them, a lot of energy to dispose them.

[@snowflakemelter7171]

You sell luxury cars then. The luxury market will flourish. Ferrari only sell a few cars annually.

[@Continentalmunkey88]

1:20 State, hacking corporate assets for preventative inventory but this doscussion @ london underground not Berlin but eventually SEZ but temporal > ephemeral data loss?

[@gregspecht3706]

Trying to count the number of robots is a really dumb statistic. Is my car 1 robot, 10 robots because it has 10 chips in it or 0 because it doesn't look like a robot. Is my smart microwave a robot what about my dumb microwave or how about my laptop.

[@froilanace]

I think they were counting just factory or production robots and not just any other robots or machine.

[@gregspecht3706]

@@froilanace yeah but I design production lines and we don't order robots. We get conveyor belts or motors or sensors or data acquisition systems or micro controllers or actuators. So I don't know what they mean when they say robots unless they specifically mean a 7 axis robot arm or humanoid type robots as robots.

[@edrcozonoking]

Yep. Computers aren't robots but they have replaced millions of workers.

[@cacojo15]

@@gregspecht3706 I guess they are counting the number of machines sold as a "unit" like an articulated arm but I agree it does not make much sens.

[@FrankensteinDIYkayak]

gaining skills and education gets mentioned but what with the UAW stike and seeing what they want it seems a union card pays off more. tech people will probably end up with temp contracts for carmakers to save money while they have to pay the increased cost of union labor

[@lazarusblackwell6988]

People will adapt or they will be wiped out. Robots will do most of our work and people will finally be free to live their life.

[@the_expidition427]

It fails. The socialists thought labor would replace capitialists. Instead the technocrats did. Now the capitalists are vassals in an age of techno-feudalism.

[@totoroben]

AI and robotics will reduce the number of available jobs. We don't need speculation about how jobs will change, we just need to know that AI and robotics will reduce the number of available jobs and think about the implications of that. How can we ensure those who are jobless can still survive, and what other tasks will humans do when they are largely replaced.

[@glenfoxh]

I have worked in many factory jobs. No robot of today, can do what humans can do, as far as speed, and error checking. As is, most places set the standard of work speed for human workers at a pace many humans just can't do well, or would want to do at all. So, robots have a long way to go, before they can replace people who do such things as packing random things in boxes quickly.

[@trungson6604]

Meanwhile, according to a CNA Insider video recently on KZbin, there is now record level of unemployment in China's youth and new graduates, as high as 21.8%. Young people are more likely to spend money on new tech goods. What is the point of producing goods very efficiently using robots and AI that fewer people can afford them? Likewise, there are too many of empty houses and condos in China that people can't afford them. The world will need to re-consider and fine tune socialism in order to cope with the new reality of robots and AI displacing most workers.

[@trungson6604]

@wmk4454 We will have to fine tune socialism to bring better living condition to most people.

[@menguardingtheirownwallets6791]

Want to work as a farmer using horses to pull plows in the dirt, instead of using advanced tractors? Why not? Don't you like working in the dirt? Well, thanks to modern tractor technology, people don't have to work as farmers, we now only need 4% as many people working in farming as we did before, yet we produce the same amount of food. The same thing will happen to manufacturing. The problem now becomes; "what do we do for employment???"

[@jonathanrodriguez8219]

Correct, they forgot about supply and demand...... very basic.

[@veritaspk]

The "frontier of automation" will eventually reach all works. Some tasks are still too complex to be performed by machines... but this is changing quickly. We have entered the vertical part of the exponential curve.

[@workstationmark4103]

High speed machinery can replace carpal tunnel syndrome,sick days,traffic jams,housing shortages, and traffic jams

[@DrawThatFox-rq5sx]

There is not enough energy or materials for this transition, its just a hype.

[@shininio]

As someone who has worked with advanced automation and robotics for 30 years, I can tell you this will not happen. Manufacturing processes and automation itself needs plenty supervision. The more advanced and complex automation is, the more supervision it needs

[@pauljeavons8878]

Agreed entirely, I'm a PLC guy too mostly Siemens these days. It does make me smile when I see this rubbish sales bull talk.

[@born2run121]

False i work at an Amazon warehouse there’s robots arms and other various robots working without supervision. Although they definitely have a whole department to fix the machines.

[@Danuxsy]

this is only true up to a point, if machines are competent enough they would not require supervision.

[@shininio]

@@born2run121 The video is talking about factories and I´m commenting about manufacturing and value adding activities. Amazon? gimmie a break

[@born2run121]

@@shininio Ok then just because something needs supervision doesn’t stop it from getting automated if companies see that it is efficient and cheaper.

[@SpartanForces117]

there needs to be a robot tax. the economy only works when the cashflow goes in a circle

[@TomNook.]

Robotics and automation replacing manual low skilled jobs. AI replacing high skilled jobs. More time to live and enjoy our lives right? We need UBI.

[@edrcozonoking]

Where is the person's income going to come from?

[@bora--bora]

@@edrcozonoking taxing on companies who build, deploy, consume, and operate any AI, Robots or combinations of both

[@JBoy340a]

Tesla is still moving toward the goal of no humans on the factory floor. Their new GigaCasting system that makes the "frame" of the car in one cast is a big first step. I suspect they will make great stride towards lights out manufacturing in the next few years.

[@Zgreasewood]

And then when workers and poor cant get a job so can't afford a car, say they are lazy, great plan.

[@JBoy340a]

@@Zgreasewood workers have been displaced by tech forever. They find other jobs. There were 500,000 or so telephone operators in the 1950s. And now...

[@markcomeaux4855]

If you dont have jobs to pay people no one will be able to buy the tomatoes your robots are cutting

[@martynhaggerty2294]

Finished with talking about happier workers... only if they have a job!

[@DavidSeowFanWei]

yes there are more creation of jobs that is better like being technician of the automation but the thing is that warehouse workers like 16+ people being replace for 1 technicians for 1 machine. The unemployment will be high since the job loss is more tthan the job creation, since the manufacturing sector will be automated this will increase the productivity and the economy to the point of Universal Basic Income (UBI is a short-term bandage imo) as a stop-gap on how to create new kind of jobs in this new AI industry revolution

[@petersuvara]

One thing to consider, is that to create a general intelligent human will be easier once we can genetically select our embryos for hight IQ.

[@zaggnutt]

Nice graceful drop of tomatoes into the box at 0:20

[@saulm1962]

I guess robots will buy goods and pay taxes. What happens when the electricity goes out.

[@sm1522]

The companies will still be taxed.

[@WilliamLeeSims]

@@sm1522 In my experience, the more powerful the company, the more control they have over the government and laws. If they're the only ones making money, they will be the ones paying the politicians to make laws.

[@rgbaal]

"What happens when the electricity goes out." the same thing as happens with a "human factory" everything stops until it comes back on again. We don't power factories with coal and steam anymore.

[@sm1522]

@@WilliamLeeSims The problem people have in understanding the economy of the future is that you need to look at it through a more simplistic lens. Money is simply a tool for encouraging production, and corporations simply a means for maximizing profits. With production being done by machines currency will evolve to have a slightly different meaning or purpose. Rather than the average person being forced to act as a machine in exchange for survival, a job can be a source of fulfilment rather than a necessity. And people will still have jobs, it's just that the jobs that people already hate doing will become a thing of the past. Work will become more enjoyable and wages will actually be able to rise without the consequence of inflation because the entire economy will actually become more efficient. Although, there is the potential for increased wealth concentration [as we are seeing]. But this is where we must rely on the government to limit the power of corporations to ensure that they act as entities that provide value. But this brings me back to my first point of the simpler mind set. Think of any minimum wage job, now picture that job being done by a machine. Now the person is able to go home, they are free. Of course the machine parts and maintenance will cost money but if that amount is lower than the wage, the entire economy becomes more efficient by a tiny amount and we all benefit.

[@cacojo15]

@@rgbaal I thought the exact same lol

[@ZeroSumgame-vo4uh]

What happens to the working people who need to earn a living wage if robot 🤖 takes their jobs?

[@xander9460]

What a dystopian name lol xD "Dark Factories". I think they should hire a Designer/Branding company or something to help them out with putting this on the market x)

[@special1740]

These robots can be hacked by foreign countries…

[@tonycummings4588]

4:20 im fairly surely company owners knew before covid that machines couldn't get sick

[@UQRXD]

As a retired automation engineer I will say this. People will be replaced only on a cost effective basis. In developing countries unskilled labor will be human for some time to come. High skilled workers are already being replaced by AI. What would take years or decades in a lab takes only hours. The human brain can not run a million simulations an hour or less by now. It is getting very creepy.

[@eTek891]

I was at Tesla from 2015- 2019, the push for automation through the model 3 assembly was a disaster. Not because it couldnt be done given enough time, but because it doesnt need to be done. You automate assembly processes to improve the output or yield, but you do not automate just to automate.

[@vlhc4642]

And that's why more than half of Teslas are made in China, where there are more 50% more robots per worker than the US, and Shanghai employs the same number of people (20k) to make 3x more cars than giga Texas (750k vs 250k)