This is the question at the heart of my talk to our magazine, published online today. Whether we can trust humanoid robots enough to welcome them into our most private spaces, especially if they are part of an asymmetrical labor arrangement where workers are poorly paid. – Wage countries are performing physical tasks inside our homes through robotic interfaces. In that article, I wrote about a robotics company called Prosper and its massive effort to bring in former Pixar designers and professional butlers to design a reliable domestic robot named Alfie. It’s quite comfortable to ride. Read the story here.
But the big question this story raises is how profound the next few years are likely to bring about changes in robotics for workforce dynamics.
For decades, robots have thrived on assembly lines and other somewhat predictable environments. And in recent years, AI has allowed robots to learn tasks faster, making them more applicable to tasks in more chaotic environments, such as picking orders in a warehouse. But a growing number of companies with deep pockets are pushing for even bigger changes.
Prosper and his colleagues are betting that there’s no need to build a perfect robot that can do everything on its own. Instead, they can build something really cool, but with the help of remote operators anywhere in the world. If it’s successful enough, the company hopes to introduce robots to jobs that most of us think can’t be automated, such as hotel room attendants, hospital care workers, and domestic helpers. “Almost all indoor manual labor is on the table,” said Shariq Hashme, founder and CEO of Prosper.
Until now, we have mainly thought of automation and outsourcing as two separate forces that can impact the labor market. Jobs can be outsourced overseas or lost to automation, but not both. Jobs like cleaning hotel rooms, which cannot be sent overseas and cannot yet be fully automated by machines, are not going anywhere. Advances in robotics now promise that employers can outsource such jobs to low-wage countries without the need for technology to fully automate them.
Admittedly, that’s a tall order. No matter how advanced robots become, they may still have difficulty navigating complex environments like hotels and hospitals, even with assistance. It will take years for that to change. But robots will only become more agile, as will systems that allow them to be controlled from the other side of the world. Ultimately, the bets made by these companies may pay off.