Intrinsic, a new Alphabet company

I'd say it's very different with X. I looked at the large number of hardware design docs that were open-sourced[1] when they shut down Makani - hell, even the Makani documentary[2] was mostly about hardware (material science, mechanics, aerodynamics) with a some software sprinkled in.

1. https://github.com/google/makani

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_hEja6bzE

> building a machine of machines

a self replicating robot / factory / 3d-printer, a potentially new form of life

> as Alphabet apparently thinks everyone is still doing. The obliviousness of suggesting that using ML models for robotic control is some unique new idea is really off-putting.

Intrinsic/Alphabet are not suggesting they are somehow unaware of easily-Google-able state of the art in ML robotics. They literally used to own Boston Dynamics.

From the post, the second demo of their tech (“Two robots use perception, force control, and multi-robot planning to assemble a simple piece of furniture”), is very clearly much more than “moving Petri dishes”.

FAANG has access to the leading factories in Shenzhen, and heavily utilize robot tech in their HW supply chains.

> Especially when those cheap labor countries start having the same effect.

You missed the comment’s pivotal point. As developing countries, well, develop, higher labor prices will affect the entire supply chain. It’s a Good Thing (TM), and that’s why we’ll need better robotics in that future.

To me, this is robot vs process - how much do we need clever robots and how much do we need to change the job.

There is an old saw about the transition from steam powered factories to electrical power. Initially the large steam engine was in one location, and basically its power was delivered by belts running off one central location. The factories initially tried to replace the steam engine with one big electric motor, and it worked ok but the factory was still a hub and spoke and pieces had to be moved from one spoke to the next.

It was not until a new generation of factories were built with many motors at any point in the factory that the modern line was built.

Of course this is a massive simplification, but I look at two robots using 10 m2 to assemble some Ikea cabinet, and think "awesome geekery" but if you want a factory producing pre-made furniture go back at least three-steps.

Robots that can replace a human arm in the assembly process just feel like we are replacing that big steam engine in the middle of the factory.

And, yes industrial robots is where you start, of course. But a factory can change its process to eliminate the need for a general purpose robot. But the home - that's a different story.

* Take up two "normal" sizes of a washing machine. A hopper accepts clothes, sorts them using RFID tags, and begins a run in a smaller drum, spins, dries and folds them. (yes, its probably magic but this would be on everyone's XMAS list)

* (completely foregoing everything I just said) a mobile robot arm that can learn where each item in a house belongs. 3D tracking, ML etc, and it picks up the toys my kids have left lying around.

* I am not sure where the "robot" vs "process" sits here, but food purchase and prep is a large time sink for many, but there seems to be a viable disintermediation of supermarkets - I mean if i choose a decent set of meals for a week, why send the food to the supermarket so it can use its shelves as a collection point to send it on to me. And if the food is picked so i get "nice meal on Saturday" plus "something with the extra Tues lunch"

I think there is a real possibility of robots making the middle class home like a B&B.

As Jerry Hall said, "My Mother told me if I wanted to keep a man I needed to be a Chef in the Kitchen, a Maid in the living room and a Whore in the bedroom. I said I would hire the first two and take care of the rest myself."

Edit: honestly I am not trying to be HN-negative, and I think all this investment is only going to build better robots. Which is a win. But I remain under-convinced that building general-purpose robots to replace general-purpose humans, when humans are already having the easy bits replaced by specific purpose robots is a good idea - it feels like running uphill.