https://youtu.be/Lf1UTy7X1ak?si=jkTJhExsu5-t5u5Q
I’ve seen this documentary
I did not realise that show was already around when Futurama was airing, in order to parody it.
It’s an opportunity for automation in a structured environment—but with enough variety that actual automation isn’t cost effective. Suddenly, robots and their tiny bit of flexible automation have a chance to be a practical solution.
Advanced robots as the middle ground between factory machines and humans workers. That’s a way I hadn’t heard it put before, although it seems really obvious now.
I suppose the risk is all in threading that needle. If these guys can’t gather the required data to handle all the ingredients they need to - or if there’s unforeseen issues training with it - their business fails. If conventional restaurant automation approaches turn out to be usable even in those cases, maybe by the appearance of new machines or a new ways of providing machines, they also fail.
LLMs seem to be rapidly evolving robotics AI. Looking at Figure right now, it seems general purpose robots capable of most unskilled work (cleaning, warehouses, etc) can’t be far off.
The thing with these videos, is that they’re in a controlled environment and there’s usually a lot of takes. My grain of salt remains large.
