Laundry-Sorting Robot Spurs AI Hopes and Fears At Europe's Biggest Tech Event (theguardian.com) 15
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: This year's Web Summit, in Lisbon, was all about artificial intelligence -- and a robot sorting laundry. Digit, a humanoid built by the US firm Agility Robotics, demonstrated how far AI has come in a few years by responding to voice commands -- filtered through Google's Gemini AI model -- to sift through a pile of colored T-shirts and place them in a basket. It wasn't a seamless demonstration but the enthusiastic response, nearly two years on from the launch of ChatGPT, reflected the excitement about all things AI that pervaded Europe's biggest annual tech conference.
[...] Digit is being used in warehouses by GXO, a US logistics company, to lift boxes and place them on conveyor belts. According to the chief executive of Agility Robotics, Peggy Johnson, a new role could be created managing teams of Digits doing physical work. "Employees who were previously doing this physical work, appreciate the fact that they can hand that off to Digit," she said. "Then it allows them to do a number of other things, one of which is to be a robot manager." "Talk of a bust in the AI boom could not be heard over the shouts of encouragement for Digit as it pondered different shades of garment," reports The Guardian. "Nonetheless, the voices of caution were there, discussing familiar themes such as safety, jobs and the climate, as AI comes to influence a huge range of industries."
[...] Digit is being used in warehouses by GXO, a US logistics company, to lift boxes and place them on conveyor belts. According to the chief executive of Agility Robotics, Peggy Johnson, a new role could be created managing teams of Digits doing physical work. "Employees who were previously doing this physical work, appreciate the fact that they can hand that off to Digit," she said. "Then it allows them to do a number of other things, one of which is to be a robot manager." "Talk of a bust in the AI boom could not be heard over the shouts of encouragement for Digit as it pondered different shades of garment," reports The Guardian. "Nonetheless, the voices of caution were there, discussing familiar themes such as safety, jobs and the climate, as AI comes to influence a huge range of industries."
failure to permanently [im]press (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Fabric is famously hard for robots to deal with. Rigid plastic blocks are pretty much the exact opposite of that. Fabric can be thick, thin, bendy, not bendy, slippery, squishy, elastic, inelastic etc etc. Picking up and folding a thin women's silk blouse is very different from picking up and folding a thick wool russian military winter jacket. Both are fabric, and we both know roughly how they react - but pre LLM how did you quantify that in a way a computer could understand?
Robots sorting laundry
The New Age Is Upon Us (Score:2)
"Laundry-Sorting Robot Spurs AI Hopes and Fears"
What a time to be alive.
Re: (Score:2)
I always imagined a future were we didn't have to wear complicated clothing that needed to be washed. Self washing robes. Or simple nudity in a climate-controlled environment.
This, on the other hand, seems like one of those old-timey illustrations of a future where men would go to a barbershop filled with robotic arms to get a shave with a straight razor. Or a mail carrier would hand-deliver letters to 10th story windows on his flying motorcycle. Just total retro-future type stuff, and that's what a laundry
Or ... (Score:2)
oh, yeah, Mom used to sort laundry (Score:3)
Apparently, colors used to bleed a lot in the 1960s. If we can send this AI back in time 80 years or so, we'll make a fortune.
I guess one tech trend is continuing (Score:2)
The era of Big Tech that gave us things like Uber and DoorDash also brought us Juicero and plenty of other failed startups that managed to appify things like laundry. This is just a continuation of the tech trend of building replacements for things your mom used to do for you.
How much more does it cost... (Score:2)
In developed countries with better labour laws and more effective enforcement, robot manual labour might actually make economic sense.
Re: (Score:1)
We really need robots to sort laundry?
Really?
Is there anyone who sorts laundry as a career?
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, housekeepers have to laundry sheets, pillow cases and towels as part of their routine. Otherwise, nah, no one needs this although if you could get it to vacuum, pick up the kids' toys, wash dishes, load and unload the dishwasher AND do all the laundry tasks, ie retrieve basket, load washer, add soap, etc. Now that could be a very cool robot to have.
Program that shit to laugh at your stupid jokes, watch tv with you and give it some extra adult equipment and who needs a spouse now! Yep, we're doomed!
This year, laundry. Tomorrow.... (Score:1)
The world!
Even Skynet had to start somewhere.
I fear AI is going to take over all the laundry sorting jobs.
Call me when it can FOLD my laundry (Score:2)
Yes, it's a big thing to sort, but that's far less important. I can sort folded clothes pretty fast. I can't fold them very fast.
Folding robots aren't unheard of; there was a report from 2022 that The fastest ever laundry-folding robot is here. And it's likely still slower than you [npr.org] and that's fine by me; it can take a few hours as long as it can run unattended. Then again, the "here" part is debatable. The article ends with a section called "It's still a long way from your laundry room" that says "it's no
Retrain if you're afraid. (Score:2)
If you're in a job that's being threatened with replacement by automation in the future, get off your ass NOW and look for training in something else. But, no, it's much easier to sit on your ass and yell "they're takin our yobs" now than do anything about it. It's the same as with voter ID (not that I'm for that shit, just using it as an example here) where people had months, if not years to get out and get an ID, but did nothing until it was too late to get one. They then started complaining, saying th
Re: (Score:2)
>If you're in a job that's being threatened with replacement by automation in the future, get off your ass NOW and look for training in something else. But, no, it's much easier to sit on your ass and yell "they're takin our yobs" now than do anything about it.
If you're in a job that is essentially repetitive manual labor with navigation and object recognition tasks tacked on... you're unlikely to be retraining for anything that AI replacing you won't already be able to do.
A humanoid robot that can fold