Artificial intelligence robots are popping up all over Silicon Valley. If some industry experts are right, they could help solve a global labor shortage.
Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia have plowed billions of dollars into what are known as “humanoid” robots. These machines usually stand on two legs and are designed to perform tasks intended for humans.
Currently, they are deployed in repositories. But proponents say the potential extends far beyond fulfillment centers. These bots could eventually work alongside humans, in homes and offices.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was among the leading evangelists. The electric vehicle maker is betting on the Optimus robot, which Musk claims will “transform the world even more than cars.”
During the company’s first-quarter earnings call, Musk said that Optimus could propel it to a market cap of $25 trillion and that it would account for “most of Tesla’s long-term value.” Amazon has backed Agility Robotics and is already deploying its Digit robots in fulfillment centers.
According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, the market for hominids is set to reach $38 billion over the next 20 years. The company predicts that these robots will be the next “must-have” device, unlike smartphones or EVs. Goldman also says that humanoids may be “vital for manufacturing and hazardous work, but they would also help care for the elderly and fill labor shortages in factories.”
AI boost
These humanoid robots have been around for decades. But there is renewed optimism in the industry, thanks to recent leaps in artificial intelligence. The same technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT allows bots to interpret language and commands and make decisions about how to act. Machines use computer vision and, similar to humans, are trained on real-world scenarios.
“Robotics is where artificial intelligence meets reality,” Henrik Christensen, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego, told CNBC. “That creates some very interesting new combinations that I think even five years ago, we couldn’t have imagined.”
The global labor shortage is another key to the recent interest in hominids. There are about 8.5 million jobs in the U.S. alone, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The gap is particularly deep in manufacturing, where Goldman estimates there is a shortage of 500,000 workers, expected to grow to 2 million workers by 2030. Advocates say robots are filling jobs that are monotonous and dangerous.
“We’re starting with what we call boring, dirty, dangerous jobs, those jobs where we have big labor shortages today, where we don’t have people to do that work,” said Jeff Cardenas, CEO and co-founder of robotics startup Apptronik.
Competition is global. China already dominates the industry, overtaking Japan in 2013 as the world’s largest installer of industrial robots and now accounting for more than half of the global total, according to Stanford’s AI Index Report.
“The Chinese market is the biggest in the world,” said Tom Andersson, principal analyst at Styleintelligence, adding that the only other company in the West that has anything similar to what China produces is Amazon. “But Chinese companies are quickly catching up.”
However, there are roadblocks. The machines are expensive and there are safety concerns about providing robots in factories.
“When it comes to mass adoption or even something very close to mass adoption, I think we’re going to have to wait several years. Probably a decade at least,” Anderson said. “Sorry, Musk.”
Watch the full video to learn more about the rise of humanoid robots.
