Automation: Atlas Robot’s Advanced Capability Threatens American Jobs
02/26/2016
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The video below had more than eight million views in two days, February 23-25. The reason for the interest is certainly the machine’s remarkable balance and ease of movement. “Atlas” walks over a snowy landscape outdoors and regains footing after slipping. It lifts boxes and places them on shelves. When a human moves a box on the floor away from Atlas, the robot follows it around the room.

Patriarch Equity CEO Eric Schiffer opined, “Robots are workforce napalm for American workers.” While visiting Fox Business with Stuart Varney on Thursday, he further remarked about such advanced robots, “It is the death of the paycheck for the American worker. . . We really need to begin to think about these things because it’s coming sooner than you think. . . We need a plan for these things to protect the American worker.”

Over at CNBC, a tech commenter declared the machine signaled “the end of manual labor.”

Surely then, America doesn’t need additional millions of third-world immigrants (or any other kind) to do the work, since automation will be doing most of it.

Google robot is ‘the end of manual labor’, CNBC, February 24, 2016

Boston Dynamics’ new “Atlas” robot is a game changer, not just for companies, but for society, Insider.com CEO Jason Calacanis said Wednesday.

“This is really the end of manual labor. When you watch this video, he’s walking through the snow; he’s wobbly, but he gets back up,” the tech investor told CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.”

“Manual labor is going to end in our lifetime, and in this video you can see how close we really are. It’s a huge societal issue with jobs, but it’s going to be a huge lift in terms of efficiency of companies that nobody expected.”

The Alphabet-owned robotics company released a video on Tuesday of the Atlas, in which it moves boxes and gets back up after being knocked down.

“It’s super eerie. In 10 years, the idea is going to be ‘would you let this [robot] put your kids to bed? Would you let it change your kid’s diaper?'” Calacanis said. “That’s how fast this is going to advance. It’s picking up packages right now. These things are going to be walking down the street 10 to 15 years from now, delivering pizzas; they’re going to be in your office moving packages around.”

Calacanis also noted that Amazon.com’s offices currently have robots executing simple tasks and “eliminating human jobs.”

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