Work for a robot

Are humanoid machines a threat to the labour market or a publicity gimmick?

The generator of semi-fantastic ideas concurrently holding the office of an entrepreneur, engineer and billionaire, Elon Musk, has recently stunned everyone with his statement claiming that at least a thousand humanoid robots could be working at his Tesla corporation in 2025 that are expected to replace ordinary workers. According to Musk, further robotisation will develop exponentially around the world. How is this situation unfolding in Belarus?

Threat with a human face

Just a couple of years ago, someone could laugh at docile robotic dogs and clumsy delivery robots. Now it is already no laughing matter for many people as smart machines have begun to displace Homo sapiens from production. Here is just one of the many examples: last year, Amazon, a global e-commerce giant, started testing humanoid robots in its warehouses — allegedly, they have already learnt how to grasp, lift and handle items in a similar fashion to a human. At the same time, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced that their future humanoid robot Pibot would be able to take control of a real aircraft just like a human pilot, no cockpit redesign would be required. Boston Dynamics, Agility, Fig and other well-known humanoid manufacturing companies have gained numerous followers. 
Now the widely known innovator, Elon Musk, revealed last April that humanoid robots would be able to perform tasks at Tesla by the end of the year, whereas in 2025, they may be put on the market. It is up for grabs — the price of an AI-driven employee will be up to $25,000 (but this is not certain).
“We do not see AI replacing humans but humans who use AI potentially replacing people who do not,” Lisa Heneghan, Global Chief Digital Officer at KPMG, one of the world’s largest audit, tax and advisory companies providing AI-powered services to enterprises, outlined one of the current trends at the Viva Technology international exhibition in Paris in May 2024. 

Machines are not omnipotent

Robotisation is a natural process that fits into the modern framework of scientific and technological progress. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the number of industrial robots in operation on a global scale reached 3.5 million units by the end of 2022. Experts consider that the main factors for the deployment of robotic complexes encompass not only the introduction of the Industry 4.0 concept (see the infographic) but also — attention! — the shortage of skilled labour in the manufacturing industry. That is, progress so far is not against people but to help them. Thus, Canadian startup Sanctuary AI has struck a deal with the spare parts manufacturer Magna International envisaging that Phoenix humanoid robots developed by Sanctuary AI will work at factories for the production of components and parts for Volkswagen, Audi, Škoda, Ferrari, Build Your Dreams (BYD) vehicles. After all, the much-hyped Optimus robots by Elon Musk & Co do not claim to be a complete replacement for a person, either. It is believed that they can be involved in logistics, warehousing, retail and manufacturing, and only under human guidance, despite the potential unlimited possibilities of reprogramming in the future. 

Without unnecessary hype

The introduction of industrial robots is one of the major tasks for the next 15 years for Belarus. This follows from the draft concept of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of Belarus until 2040, which was submitted for public discussion earlier this year.
It is assumed that in the period 2031-2040, qualitative economic growth will be achieved, in particular, ‘through the robotisation of business processes and services, the introduction of intelligent systems and the formation of a digital products market’. The priority tasks for this decade include the development of intelligent industrial production through the introduction of high technologies, such as industrial robots and additive manufacturing equipment, digital and cloud technologies, smart equipment and products, as well as intelligent production process and product quality control.
We can already witness fresh sprouts of Belarusian robotics. Thus, the Chairperson of the Bellegprom [Belarusian light industry concern], Tatiana Lugina, unveiled in June that the concern’s enterprises were installing robotic complexes for sewing bed linen, while several complexes for the automatic towel production had already been launched, 

“The task has been set to introduce automated sewing for the feasible product range as much as possible in the coming years. The freed seamstresses will be involved in more complex areas where robots and automated machines have not yet arrived.”    

A robot manufacturing enterprise may appear in the Great Stone Belarusian-Chinese Industrial Park as one of the Chinese companies is ready to invest in opening a subsidiary in Belarus. The BELAZ welding workshop boasts more than two dozen robotic technological complexes — robotisation of welding frame cross members for dump trucks has already reached 90 percent of the total welding volume of such components. In a word, the process of production robotisation is well underway, without any shocking and loud statements or hyped sensations. In fact, it does not matter whether to use a humanoid robot or an ordinary one. The main thing is that the work is done well.

By Aleksandr Nesterov