I’ve been instinctively sceptical of automation panic, not least of all because I got really preoccupied by early 2010s claims of mass automation which never materialised. But I’m increasingly starting to doubt my confidence level and think about what it would look like if this time it really is happening, particularly when the next crash happens. See the Amazon leak reported in the NY Times:
Amazon reportedly has a plan to replace more than half a million U.S. workers with “cobots,” and avoid hiring at least 160,000 human workers by 2027.
Despite hoping to double the number of products Amazon sells by 2033, executives are said to believe robotic automation could save them the trouble of hiring 600,000 people in the long run, according to internal documents obtained by the New York Times.
Insiders at the multitrillion-dollar retailer allegedly think that referring to their robots as “cobots” — a term that implies collaboration with humans — could soften the blow.
Mark Carrigan 