Amazon exec: robots and automation will enhance, not replace, human jobs

[midian182]

In brief: Companies adopting generative AI, robotics, and other forms of automation will always bring fears that humans are being made redundant. But an executive at Amazon, which is embracing GenAI and human-like robots, claims it's a "myth" that these technologies take jobs away from people.

Stefano La Rovere, Amazon's director of global robotics, mechatronics, and sustainable packaging, told CNBC that advanced modern tech will merely enhance workers' roles and create new job categories, rather than lead to mass layoffs.

"It is a myth that technology and robots take out jobs," La Rovere told CNBC's "Street Signs Europe."

Amazon said it has spent $751 million on installing more than 1,000 new technologies across its European fulfilment centers over the last five years, "enhancing" more than 50,000 jobs across the continent.

Amazon is at the forefront when it comes to using robotics in the workplace. The company announced two new additions in October last year: Sequoia, a Roomba-like machine designed to identify and store inventory and reduce order processing time; and Digit, a 5-foot 9-inch 143-pound robot from Agility Robotics.

Digit has been especially controversial, given its human-like design. It can walk forward, backward, and sideways, squat and bend, and move, grasp, and handle items using its arm/hand-like clasps.

La Rovere echoed the same statements we've heard from Amazon in the past: that the robots are there to help employees by carrying out repetitive tasks, lifting heavy objects, and reducing walking distances.

"In turn, our employees can learn new skills, they can learn new competencies, they can acquire new capabilities that allow them to progress towards their career objectives," he added, noting that 700 new categories of jobs have been created through the use of this technology.

This isn't the first time someone has defended Amazon's robots. Damion Shelton, CEO of Agility Robotics, said in December that the health of businesses using these robots was far more dire than any perceived fears about job replacement. As a reminder, Amazon has a near $2 trillion market cap and its annual gross profit for 2023 was more than $270 billion.

As for other forms of automation tech, it sounds as if La Rovere has yet to read Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's recent shareholder letter, in which he mentions GenAI and AI over 30 times before talking about more cost-cutting measures being implemented at the company. There is also a slew of reports on the number of jobs that will be lost as a result of AI and automation.

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Amazon exec: robots and automation will enhance, not replace, human jobs

 

[redgarl]

They should replace them IMO.

Many of these jobs are hard on the body over a long period of time. It would prevent human injuries.

 

[The Talking Tech]

I wonder how that executive managed to say that without laughing.....

 

[fluffydroid]

In other news it was later reported that the executive being interviewed was actually a robot...

 

[user556]

Of course they take jobs. That's the sole reason for implementing automation. Anyone that says otherwise is full of ****, and knows it. But these are also generally jobs that people don't much enjoy doing in the first place. Which is the counterargument.

It's also the basis of why UBI is taken more seriously every year. At some point eventually, fully automated factories will make everything.

The down side of being able to make everything locally is then tribalism trumps globalism. We'll return to the bad old days of making excuses to bomb each other.

 

[dirtyferret]

I trust this amazon executive fully!

I also trust tobacco when they say smoking does not impact your health.

I trust former president donald trump when he says he's innocent in his multiple court cases.

I trust the earth is flat and the moon landing was staged in a Hollywood basement.

 

[Kingkong1984]

Yep...in a decade or two and definitely in three....In majority of warehouses we won't manage people anymore only machines...profits will improve(less salaries to pay) but not neassery those who will manage new folks on the block ☺

 

[psycros]

Of course they take jobs. That's the sole reason for implementing automation. Anyone that says otherwise is full of ****, and knows it. But these are also generally jobs that people don't much enjoy doing in the first place. Which is the counterargument.

It's also the basis of why UBI is taken more seriously every year. At some point eventually, fully automated factories will make everything.

The down side of being able to make everything locally is then tribalism trumps globalism. We'll return to the bad old days of making excuses to bomb each other.

Globalism hasn't stopped any bombs from falling. Its only made militarization more efficient and greatly increased the ambitions of expansionist, totalitarian regimes. Its also decreased the value of your money.

 

[mgwerner]

Of course they take jobs. That's the sole reason for implementing automation. Anyone that says otherwise is full of ****, and knows it. But these are also generally jobs that people don't much enjoy doing in the first place. Which is the counterargument.

It's also the basis of why UBI is taken more seriously every year. At some point eventually, fully automated factories will make everything.

The down side of being able to make everything locally is then tribalism trumps globalism. We'll return to the bad old days of making excuses to bomb each other.

I must have missed the memo on not bombing each other. I think everyone else did as well.

 

[The Talking Tech]

Of course they take jobs. That's the sole reason for implementing automation. Anyone that says otherwise is full of ****, and knows it. But these are also generally jobs that people don't much enjoy doing in the first place. Which is the counterargument.

It's also the basis of why UBI is taken more seriously every year. At some point eventually, fully automated factories will make everything.

The down side of being able to make everything locally is then tribalism trumps globalism. We'll return to the bad old days of making excuses to bomb each other.

It's not about if people at those jobs "enjoys" them or not, it's the fact that unlike you these people really need to feed their families so they have to deal with it.

Not sure if you know this, but most people in the world have to work in on order to be able to live.

 

[user556]

Not sure if you know this, but most people in the world have to work in on order to be able to live.

Money is just a tool of our own making. It performs the function of employing a workforce because that workforce is a requirement ... for the moment. If automation ends up making a workforce superfluous then it also makes money superfluous.

 

[user556]

I must have missed the memo on not bombing each other. I think everyone else did as well.

I was talking in the broader large scale long term sense. But arguably, we are seeing an effect of de-globalisation already in play. Borders are tightening, some manufacturing is re-homing, unfounded accusations are publicly flying.

 

[toooooot]

But a lot of simpler jobs will be disappearing even at a faster rate.
I feel like not all people realize that when more and more of the country gets poor, these people do not just disappear.
They still have a voice, hopes, and needs. And in a democratic society they can vote.
That shock our Hollywood and rich liberal citizens had when they realized that as many as half of all the voters
do not share their values, to me it shows that we have a lot of people that do not understand that a lot of people losing jobs and becoming poor does not go without serious outcomes.
And in the amazing age of AI, technology getting more and more advanced, some people live in this bubble where their worst worries are a climate changing and certain politicians taking positions at the government.
And in such age, both the government and large companies like Amazon should pay more attention that jobs not only becoming replaced by AI and robots and shopped oversees but also get created for as many people as it is possible.

 

[BbN48]

Money is just a tool of our own making. It performs the function of employing a workforce because that workforce is a requirement ... for the moment. If automation ends up making a workforce superfluous then it also makes money superfluous.

Yes but what humans seek more than anything is power. Money is a means to power. When the need for money disappears, the lust for power will remain. So I doubt we will get a fully egalitarian society where everyone's needs are easily met.

 

[user556]

Going down that line of thinking, if power is all that matters then you can forget about money or a society, if there's no need for a workforce then why keep us around at all? Eg: Slavery didn't exist for the fun of it. Slaves were kept only for their productivity and then disposed of.

 

[Uncle Al]

Hard to believe he could be so out of touch with what's going on around the world. There are numerous accounts where nearly entire companies have replaced workers with robots and no explanation of what those countries are doing for the displaced workers. Sooner or later somebody is going to figure out that robots don't buy those products being made and once you displace more workers and have no buyers, the companies will come to a screeching halt ....

 

[user556]

That's why universal basic income (UBI) is being considered. Money is just a tool.

 

[Eldrach]

Well - the «tent cities» in the US are there for a reason, and it’s not just «Fentanyl» addicts living in tents - but people who used to have jobs and roofs over their heads