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Some companies find only humans can do the job

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Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#41

Post by pdimitar »

bitwize wrote: post #13
lnsru wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you expect to be better in 30 years? We have NOW insane computing power, cool stuff like insane size FPGAs and super fast GPUs. Mechanical parts work with fraction of micron accuracy. And yet we have millions of workers picking simple shaped objects manually every day around the world.

It's still cheaper to exploit human laborers to pick those simple objects. There will be a reckoning once capitalism runs out of people to exploit.

How exactly will that happen? Most Western governments are happy to import immigrants after their own populace wakes up to their bullshit and stops tolerating it. Many immigrants don't mind working for 20% of what a local would work.

I don't see us running out of Indians, Chinese and Africans in the next 200 or so years at least.

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#42

Post by scoopr »

elevaet wrote: post #28
paulpauper wrote: post #27

Automation is capital intensive to set up, so it may take years for it to pay for itself. This delays adoption considerably for smaller businesses. Hair cutting is one of those jobs that resists automation. Same for burger flipping. It's not as if salons and restaurants can afford expensive robots to automate those tasks. Customer support automation may mean lost business due to angry customers.

Hah! Never mind the capital overhead, it might be a while before customers trust a scissors-wielding robot with their head!

Indeed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8Xgp8ALFo

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#43

Post by gattr »

lelanthran wrote: post #33
sgt101 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If getting jiggy with an industrial machine that could tear you in half is what floats your boat...

> If getting jiggy with an industrial machine that could tear you in half is what floats your boat... People already get jiggy with other people who could easily bite off important bits. The issue is trust, and I think that even with the simplest of failsafes[1], the machine juggling your important bits can be made more trustworthy than the human currently doing it. [1] For example, failing in an off position, or usi…

Even if they make perfectly human-like, realistically acting sexbots with HW failsafes, there's the question of trusting the SW. It would be inadvisable to use such a black-box proprietary machine which is probably recording and sending detailed (and potentially embarrassing) telemetry. I'd expect a long wait for community-designed, open-source equivalents.

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#46

Post by black_13 »

astrange wrote: post #14
robg wrote: post #2

Humans have a minimum wage that makes employing them anti-competitive to the robotic workforce.

If the robots were good enough to replace humans they’d be good enough to demand minimum wage laws and professional licensing requirements.

No post body was provided.

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#47

Post by loupol »

sph wrote: post #22
oxfordmale wrote: post #21

Still the best solution is to combine robotics with humans. Humans are still infinitely flexible and much easier to dispose off than an expensive robot /sarcasm.

A new form a dystopian science fiction: one where robots have better labor rights than humans.

There's a 1959 Asimov short story where a futuristic government overrelying on automation realizes they can replace expensive computers driving ships and missiles with humans to save on expenditures.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#48

Post by joenot443 »

sgt101 wrote: post #18

I spent a lot of time and effort deploying automation in customer service. The idea was to do it in ways that were really valuable, as opposed to spreadsheet positive. Our management had been toasted too many times by folks selling snake oil, but my god savings were needed. They just had to be real... So first issue: developing measures that measure real overall service productivity... this is hard, the gaming is int…

I’m super curious, what are HAL and Holmes?

> algorithm costs $100k to run

I almost choked on my coffee. They used this line on multiple companies??

Re: Some companies find only humans can do the job

#49

Post by mathattack »

sgt101 wrote: post #18

I spent a lot of time and effort deploying automation in customer service. The idea was to do it in ways that were really valuable, as opposed to spreadsheet positive. Our management had been toasted too many times by folks selling snake oil, but my god savings were needed. They just had to be real... So first issue: developing measures that measure real overall service productivity... this is hard, the gaming is int…

How many RFI's were derailed by some regional President at a supplier ringing my CIO or CEO and explaining that I was "a problem" and had "an attitude"

I had issues with this too. The only solution is to prep your CIO whenever you play hardball, and return the favor to the vendor.

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