Humanoid robots will be ‘cheap in the long run’ so all homes and workplaces can buy one – leaving some humans ‘obsolete’
HUMANOID robots could one day be so cheap they’ll be accessible to the general public and workplaces.
That’s according to one expert who spoke with The U.S. Sun about how the bots are set to change the world.
Professor Robert Riener, from the research university ETH Zurich, revealed what he thinks the pros and cons of humanoids will be.
“We can get helpers that do tasks that we do not like to do,” he told us.
“Costs will be cheap in the long run. Such robots can especially help people with disabilities, or elderlies that need support and want to stay independent or don’t have family to help them or no money to pay for care.”
These are positive outlooks that other experts are hoping for.
Professor Luis Sentis from the University of Texas, previously said that robots could change the future of elderly care.
“Robots becoming nursing support, I think is going to be really important,” he told a small audience.
Professor Sentis is part of a team working on a humanoid called Draco 3.
Draco 3 is already being trained to do tasks like washing dishes and it’s easy to see how the bot could fit in a busy home setting.
The robots may be designed to do menial or laborious tasks but experts still fear there will be negative consequences.
“Humans and their work power get obsolete. This will lesser be an economic problem rather than a psychological one.
“What shall we do with our time and how will we feel, if we don’t have a task, and no satisfaction at work anymore,” Professor Riener told us.
Billionaire Elon Musk who is working on his own Optimus humanoids has expressed similar concerns when it comes to AI.
In 2017, he raised this issue at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
“The harder challenge is how do people then have meaning – because a lot of people derive their meaning from their employment,” the Tesla CEO said.
“If you are not needed, if there is not a need for your labor. What’s the meaning?”
“Do you have meaning, are you useless? That is a much harder problem to deal with.”