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00:04A new army is being readied.
00:08It really is a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it.
00:14Workers who never rest or miss a shift.
00:20There's no driver.
00:21Heading to chase heaven.
00:23That is a weird thing.
00:30Will robots increase productivity and make us richer?
00:36You can only get better. Of course there are risks. Of course there are fears.
00:40But I am very bullish about the future.
00:43Or will they take our jobs and make us poorer?
00:50Does that mean some people will be out of work? Yes, of course.
00:54And anyone that says otherwise is just not being honest.
01:12The world is about to be transformed by robots with artificial intelligence.
01:26Billions are being spent making machines like this stronger.
01:33More dextrous.
01:37More intelligent.
01:42It's definitely the start of an industrial revolution.
01:46And I think the speed of this is at light speed compared to previous technology.
01:51So I think this multi-trillion dollar global market is going to take place.
01:55And it's going to fall right under robotics.
02:05The age of the robot is here.
02:10Oh my God.
02:13Hello Coid.
02:15Wow.
02:16You're just like a little person.
02:18Hello.
02:19Pleased to meet you.
02:20This is Coid.
02:21A robot made in China and sold here in the US from around $20,000.
02:27What can you do with your arms then Coid?
02:29Show me what you can, show me your tricks.
02:31Oh very good.
02:34Bit of clapping.
02:35What else?
02:42So it can dance, it can also run and has amazing balance.
02:51This is the first humanoid robot I've met and it is, it's sort of genuinely weird.
02:58It's sort of really impressive and a bit frightening at the same time.
03:08It looks good, but this humanoid robot doesn't think for itself.
03:19Its movements have been pre-programmed and are controlled by an operator.
03:29The machines could become a robot workforce operated remotely from countries where wages are much lower.
03:40We can almost have people sitting in almost call centers and being strapped up to these mimicking devices for teleoperation
03:46and operating in a warehouse, right?
03:48And it's almost like you can build the whole industry off that.
03:51You could have very cheap labor, maybe in countries where it's cheaper than, you know, in Europe or the United
03:55States.
03:55Doing the labor, but controlled by somebody where labor is a lot cheaper.
03:58It's like outsourced physical labor.
04:00Wow.
04:00Which is pretty crazy to think about.
04:05And that raises one very big question.
04:10Are robots about to take your job?
04:16This is me here.
04:20That's my Waymo.
04:22This is a driverless taxi.
04:25Look, that's got my name on the roof.
04:28That's RB.
04:29That's me on the roof.
04:34Hello.
04:35Hi there.
04:37So it said, hi there, Richard.
04:39Okay.
04:39So it says, good afternoon, Richard.
04:42Start ride.
04:43I'm going to close the door.
04:46I'm going to start the ride.
04:49There's no driver.
04:51Heading to Chase Center.
04:53That is...
04:56That is a weird thing to feel.
05:10This is what robots can do when they're powered with artificial intelligence.
05:16A machine that can think for itself working the streets of San Francisco.
05:25Waymo has around a thousand of them here.
05:28And they've become part of city life.
05:31There's no driver.
05:32This is all automatic.
05:34And this is kind of, wow, it's not afraid to go a bit faster.
05:48I've been in it now, what, a minute?
05:50And you do think it's in control.
05:52We've stopped at a crossing.
05:53We've gone through roadworks.
05:55It's stopping at a junction now.
05:59There's another one coming the other way.
06:06Yeah, look, it's all starting to feel normal.
06:18Don't forget your phone.
06:20He or Lauren.
06:26I mean, I enjoyed it.
06:29I enjoyed it.
06:32But it's very, very weird at the beginning.
06:34It's really weird to be in a car that's just flicking the wheel, using the indicator, just driving itself around.
06:47Waymo cars already operate in 10 US cities.
06:52The plan is to have them on London's roads by the end of this year.
06:58I would say that, you know, they're more like the most, you know, the safest, most competent driver that you've
07:05ever been with.
07:06They're paying attention all the time.
07:08They're never drunk.
07:09They're never texting.
07:10And they're able to react really at split second notice to anything that might come around.
07:15Do you worry that you're taking jobs away from people?
07:18Certainly.
07:18I think we're expecting that AI is going to change the world in many, many different ways.
07:22But we haven't yet seen data that, you know, jobs or employment in these areas is necessarily going to fall
07:28off a cliff.
07:31It hasn't all been perfect.
07:35One customer started filming when the car went wrong.
07:39It's circling around a parking lot.
07:43I got my seatbelt on.
07:44I can't get out the car.
07:46Has this been hacked?
07:47What's going on?
07:47I feel like I'm in the movies.
07:50Is somebody playing a joke on me?
07:52And I got a flight to catch.
07:56Last year, Waymo reported around 600 incidents from low-speed bumps to more serious collisions.
08:07Waymo says its data from the past five years suggests the robot taxis are ten times safer than human-driven
08:15vehicles.
08:22Waymo is the most mature manifestation of AI in the physical world.
08:27I think that for the vast majority of our driving, it's a chore.
08:31It's a burden for many folks.
08:34And I think if there's an opportunity to get rid of that and give that time back in society, then
08:38we should take that opportunity.
08:42There's around 120,000 licensed taxi and private hire drivers in London.
08:49In the US, there's more than half a million taxi drivers alone.
08:54If we come back in a couple of years, will these guys even be here?
09:00We've come to look at Waymo.
09:02You know, they're driverless cars.
09:04It's the ghost car.
09:07It is?
09:08Yeah, it's a ghost car.
09:10I don't know what the city, what the government is thinking.
09:14Does it make you angry?
09:16Of course.
09:17We are in the AI era now, you know.
09:21Technology is going to take a lot of jobs, not only the taxi, you know.
09:24What do you say to the people who use the Waymo?
09:27Why should they stick with people and reject machines?
09:30Well, when they break down, don't come to us.
09:41The US, along with China, leads the way on robotics and AI.
09:51What's happening here in California will affect all our lives.
09:59And in cities like Los Angeles, AI-powered robots are moving door to door.
10:08So, I have just ordered a cheeseburger for delivery.
10:12And I'm going to sit here and I'm going to wait for it to arrive.
10:21Bouncing towards me is a robot on a mission.
10:25This could be it.
10:29Hundreds of robots like this are already delivering food across the US.
10:35Oh, no.
10:36Where's he gone?
10:37It's gone off down that street.
10:40Let's wait and see.
10:42No.
10:43That is not mine.
10:45That's Zainab.
10:49I think this might be it.
10:50This little fella here.
10:53Well, there is Bernard.
10:54I wasn't expecting Bernard.
10:56No.
11:00No.
11:01No, Bernard is just passing through.
11:06The robots are used by delivery services like Uber Eats.
11:11Where once there was a human, there's now a machine that does it more cheaply.
11:18Come on in Sula.
11:20Here it is.
11:22Hang on.
11:23Oh, look at that. Hang on.
11:26Don't you be going anywhere with that cheeseburger.
11:32Open.
11:34Inside
11:36is my burger.
11:42Of course, I've got to test it.
11:47Mmm.
11:48That's delicious.
11:50That is a burger delivered by a robot.
11:55Mmm.
11:57There's another robot.
11:59They're everywhere.
12:09The robots only travel about a mile from the restaurants they serve.
12:14What was it like the first time a robot turned up and you put your food in that robot and
12:20then watched it sail away?
12:21What was that like?
12:23That was a trippy situation.
12:25Because, you know, you've always seen it on TVs and movies.
12:28And, you know, I remember all of the testing that we were doing, seeing it.
12:31And I was like, this thing's not going to work.
12:34But, you know, lo and behold, we haven't had any complaints.
12:39Similar machines have been trialled in England.
12:43It's a big market.
12:45There's thought to be around 100,000 restaurant delivery drivers in the UK.
12:51Pretty much at every juncture in the past, when new technology has been introduced, people have worried about jobs fairly.
12:59What has happened is, yes, there has been displacement. Jobs have evolved.
13:02But, net, we've always created more jobs at the end of the day.
13:06Of course there are risks, of course there are fears, but I am very bullish about the future.
13:16One study estimated that 60% of jobs done in the US didn't even exist in 1940.
13:25So, are robots job takers or job makers?
13:32I think it's always possible to come up with an outcome which is very unequal, which is very unfair to
13:41a large portion of the population.
13:43But it doesn't have to be that way.
13:46James Besson studies how technology changes the way we work.
13:54Concerns about computers replacing humans have been around since the 60s.
13:59So, I, in fact, looked at the 1950 census.
14:11They had some 250 some occupations, detailed occupations that were listed.
14:17And I went through and asked, which one of these disappeared because of automation?
14:21And it turns out there was only one.
14:24It was the elevator operator.
14:30He says the lesson from history is new technology expands the economy and creates new jobs.
14:41It's just a mistake to think that this technology comes in and replaces the humans and everything else stays the
14:47same.
14:48It's not what happens.
14:55Back in California, someone who has a more radical view.
15:01Ege Erdil is one of the founders of Mechanise Inc., a tech start-up that teaches AI how to do
15:08specific jobs.
15:10He thinks AI, later combined with robots, will replace us all within decades.
15:17Our goal is to create data products that enable the automation of the economy.
15:23So, it means that whatever jobs that humans are doing right now, we want AI to get good enough that
15:30it can replace humans at those jobs.
15:32So, you want to automise the whole workforce?
15:35Yeah.
15:36How will you do that? How is that possible?
15:39I think it's going to take a while. It's not going to be very easy.
15:42But it also won't just be done by us.
15:46So, we see ourselves as playing a part in a much larger process.
15:54It started already.
15:59Amazon has an army of robots, a million worldwide.
16:06Documents leaked from inside Amazon last year suggested the company wants 75% automation.
16:15Which would mean hundreds of thousands of jobs that could have been created wouldn't be needed.
16:23Amazon said the plans didn't represent its overall hiring strategy.
16:34But it isn't just manual work being taken by machines.
16:40Office jobs are also under threat from AI.
16:44AI models, they are very good at, at this point, like reading large amounts of documents and summarising what's in
16:51them.
16:52We're going to see more junior white-collar jobs get automated.
16:56How soon?
16:56And I think it's already happening.
17:02An estimated 70% of UK workers are in occupations containing tasks that AI could potentially perform or enhance.
17:15One survey of company bosses suggests AI is already replacing more jobs in the UK than it's creating.
17:27AI can take a thousand documents and get a bullet point list of what's in them in, you know, a
17:33couple of minutes, right? Or less.
17:34So I think in the same way, humanoid robots, if we achieve that potential, have the potential to do simple
17:40tasks that humans can do now, right?
17:43They could automate that, which will change the reflection of the workforce. Absolutely.
17:48Yeah. And does that mean some people will be out of work? Yes, of course.
17:52And anyone who says otherwise is just not being honest.
18:01Some skilled jobs, like a plumber or a car mechanic, are not about to be replaced by a humanoid robot.
18:10For now.
18:15Jimmy here is showing the robot what to do by moving his arms.
18:18As he moves his right arm, it's moving the right robot arm. As he moves his head, it's moving the
18:23robot head.
18:24And you can just demonstrate the task and the robot learns from what you're showing it.
18:29So it's not that he's controlling it, it's that it's the robot learning.
18:33Exactly.
18:35This machine is using AI.
18:38It's learning how to move different objects by repeating a task over and over.
18:47It's called reinforced learning and is how most AI robots are taught.
18:56It means this welding machine can make decisions for itself.
19:03Initially, it requires a lot of training data.
19:05And we're working with expert welders across the country to effectively train this welding AI model so that it can
19:12weld anything, just like a master welder could.
19:16The US, like many developed economies, has a shortage of skilled labour.
19:22You talk to any manufacturer here in the US, you hear the same challenge again and again, finding good labour.
19:28We've deployed hundreds of robots. We haven't seen a single customer let go of a worker when they bought a
19:35robot.
19:41But what about when a humanoid robot worker arrives?
19:47Figure AI say their robots worked 1,200 hours on 10-hour shifts during a trial at a BMW plant
19:57in the US.
20:01So, are humanoids about to take over in the workplace?
20:08And walk into our homes?
20:12Well, when left to work independently, today's humanoids can struggle with the most basic tasks.
20:23There's nothing wrong with being aspirational. I think where it crosses the line is when the aspirational statements get into
20:32the realm of that's not possible.
20:33I can't get behind someone saying, in the next two years, we're going to play 10 million robots in homes.
20:40Like, I know that's not physically possible, but it feels like a lot of the players going after the home
20:48market, it's like the wild, wild west.
20:54Right now, AI-powered humanoids are still in their infancy.
21:01It's expensive research, so more investment is always needed.
21:08The idea that machines can replace humans is something that's fascinated humans.
21:14And unfortunately, what that means is it's a very ripe pickings for hype.
21:19It's a way of selling the company. It's a way of making that company seem valuable.
21:23If investors start thinking that they're very close to the real thing, they pour money into it.
21:34These humanoid robots look independent.
21:39But they're remotely controlled, pre-programmed machines.
21:44A long way from the sci-fi vision of autonomous, sentient robots.
21:51There's a new video every day of a robot doing something cool.
21:55Dancing, running, backflipping, all those things.
21:58And the problem is, when it comes to the day-to-day tasks, doing things like opening a door,
22:03we don't have a humanoid robot that can robustly open doors right now.
22:07I mean, not even that basic thing, right?
22:16And if we can't open a door, we probably can't have a humanoid deployed in your house doing all the
22:21other things, right?
22:21It can't even get in your house.
22:30But that is changing.
22:33Here, at the California Institute of Technology, they are pioneering a new way of teaching robots.
22:43The key novelty to this humanoid is it's a normal, sort of off-the-shelf humanoid.
22:48But we've added some additional processing.
22:50You can see in its chest there, this is actually a full, like, desktop computer that we put on top
22:55of it.
22:59This one is designed for emergency rescue.
23:03The idea is we'd like to take something like this into, let's say, firefighting situations.
23:07So there is a building, it's on fire, the humanoid can walk in the building itself,
23:12but the drone could survey the building really quickly, right?
23:22Here, they're looking at ways to make robots safer in the real world.
23:27Instead of following pre-programmed actions, the robots can work out the movements for themselves.
23:35I think that physics have the information we need.
23:37That rather than teaching the robot to emulate a human, we should teach a robot to understand the physics.
23:42And by understanding the physics, it can know how to run lots of different ways and do lots of different
23:46actions.
23:50And this is what's coming.
23:54Safety-driven AI guarantees the robot dog avoids collisions.
24:00Its computer brain can see, think and work out how to get around objects and people.
24:08This is the robot reacting in its own way to information from the environment, right?
24:13And so, and it's doing it in a seemingly very natural way.
24:18Yeah.
24:18But it's all a function of math.
24:20It's deciding where to go.
24:22Yep. It's deciding where to go and how to avoid you.
24:24Doesn't like me, it goes away.
24:25Doesn't like anybody, in fact.
24:27That's the way it works, right?
24:29You can do this for you.
24:30It's really weird.
24:31You come in slow and it seems to almost for a second, it's like…
24:35It feels like something that's alive.
24:37It's a step to autonomy, but also a step to safety.
24:40Yeah.
24:40And making robots that people feel comfortable around.
24:43So, you're no longer scared of this robot, right?
24:47Yeah.
24:47You now almost feel sorry for it.
24:49Yeah, I do.
24:49And I think if we can cross that divide where people can feel for robots,
24:55then it opens the window to having robots around us in our daily lives in constructive ways.
25:00That's incredible.
25:03Cool.
25:03What do you think?
25:04That's my favorite.
25:05It's extraordinary.
25:16Our lives will change.
25:20Meta, which owns Facebook, says it's spending $135 billion this year on AI and expects AI to change the way
25:31we work.
25:33Elon Musk predicts robots will replace us as workers and make work an optional hobby.
25:45It all sounds great, doesn't it?
25:47But there are one or two things we need to work out before we all start relaxing.
25:52Like, where is our money going to come from if we're not working?
26:01If AI-driven robots do the work, won't the tech companies that control them take most of the gains?
26:11Mechanise Inc. says workers around the world are currently paid about £50 trillion.
26:20It thinks big tech could eventually replace them all.
26:26and capture most of that cash.
26:30Is that ethical to pursue that?
26:32I think it's ethical in general for people to try to make money.
26:35I would say that people becoming unemployed is obviously at a cost.
26:42But you have to trade that off against the benefits.
26:44The world economy, instead of doubling every 20, 30 years, could go to doubling like every year.
26:54This argument for ever greater automation is being driven by tech companies.
27:03But their robots aren't ready to take over yet.
27:10Money isn't going to really be made by taking a worker away and putting a robot in.
27:19That's small potatoes.
27:22Where the real payoff to the technology is, is where the technology and humans working together can do much more
27:30than they did before.
27:33I think that building technology and advancing our capabilities as humanity is always to our benefit.
27:42We have an opportunity to change the world and to basically raise everyone up.
27:56The robots are coming.
28:00They will transform the workplace.
28:05So what happens to us if they're doing most of the work?
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