Would you take a job making humanoid robots for an AGI?

post by Super AGI (super-agi) · 2023-07-15T05:26:27.678Z · LW · GW · No comments

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I just finished reading the transcript from this interview with Carl Shulman, and found these parts particularly interesting.

What percentage of people do you think would be interested in taking a job to convert a factory from making cars to manufacturing humanoid robots?  And/or making humanoid robots in those factories?

Would you take a job making humanoid robots for an AGI? Or Elon Musk, or another large Corporation?  How much would you need to be paid per hour? Are there any other concessions or terms you would require, beyond the pay?

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answer by Dagon · 2023-07-15T19:02:43.793Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'm not likely to take a factory job per se.  I have worked in robotics and robotic-adjacent software products (including cloud-side coordination of warehouse robots), and would do so again if the work seemed interesting and I liked my coworkers.  

I'm pretty sure that humanoid robots will never become all that common.  It's really a bad design for a whole lot of things that humans currently do, and Moloch will continue to pressure all economic actors to optimize, rather than just recreating what exists.  At least until there's a singular winning entity that doesn't have to compete for anything.

Humans have an amazing generality, but a whole lot of that is that so many tasks have evolved to be done by humans.  The vast majority of those will (over time) change to be done by non-humanoid robots, likely enough that there's never a need to make real humanoid robots.  During the transition, it'll be far cheaper (in terms of whatever resources are scarce to the AI) to just use humans for things that are so long-tail that they haven't been converted to robot-doable.  

↑ comment by Super AGI (super-agi) · 2023-08-05T03:08:44.865Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

 I'm not likely to take a factory job per se.  I have worked in robotics and robotic-adjacent software products (including cloud-side coordination of warehouse robots), and would do so again if the work seemed interesting and I liked my coworkers.  

 

What about if/when all software based work has been mostly replaced by some AGI-like systems?  E.g. As described here:

“Human workers are more valuable for their hands than their heads...”  

-- https://youtu.be/_kRg-ZP1vQc?t=6469

Where your actions would be mostly directed by an AGI through a headset or AR type system?  Would you take a job making robots for an AGI or other large Corporation at that point?  Or, would you (attempt to) object to that type of work entirely?

 

I'm pretty sure that humanoid robots will never become all that common.  It's really a bad design for a whole lot of things that humans currently do, and Moloch will continue to pressure all economic actors to optimize, rather than just recreating what exists.  At least until there's a singular winning entity that doesn't have to compete for anything.

 

I would agree with your point about human-like appearance not being a necessity when we refer to "humanoid robots". Rather, a form that includes locomotion and the capability for complex manipulation, similar to Human arms and hands, would generally suffice. Humans also come with certain logistical requirements - time to sleep, food, water, certain working conditions, and so on. The elimination of these requirements would make robots a more appealing workforce for many tasks. (If not all tasks, eventually?)

 

Humans have an amazing generality, but a whole lot of that is that so many tasks have evolved to be done by humans.  The vast majority of those will (over time) change to be done by non-humanoid robots, likely enough that there's never a need to make real humanoid robots.  During the transition, it'll be far cheaper (in terms of whatever resources are scarce to the AI) to just use humans for things that are so long-tail that they haven't been converted to robot-doable.  

 

Though, once these armed robots could easily be remotely controlled by some larger AGI type systems, then making the first generation of these new armed robots could be the last task that Humans will need to complete?  As, once the first billion or so of these new armed robots are deployed, they could be used to make the next billion and so on?

As Mr. Shulman mentions in this interview, it would seem feasible for the current car industry to be converted to make ~10 billion general purpose robots within a few years or so.

“Converting the car industry to making Humanoid Robots.”
https://youtu.be/_kRg-ZP1vQc?t=6363
 


 

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