Robot waiters in Kenya create buzz, and concerns about what it means for human labor
www.voanews.com
Industry expert says hospitality has room for mechanized and human labor
  • Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
    15·
    2 months ago

    Gods, I wish we lived in the kind of society where when I see something like robot servers I could simply say, “That is cool.” Unfortunately thanks to the capitalist hellscape we are in, my reaction is “How are they going to exploit people to make this work.” Like how the Amazon grab and go grocery stores turned out to be just people being paid super low wages

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
      10·
      2 months ago

      This is a side effect of too much doomscrolling.

      Start of the article shows the genuine reaction is there: “Children giggle as young people flash their smartphones to film robots carrying plates of freshly prepared meals on their inbuilt trays to deliver to diners in a busy eatery in Kenya’s capital.”

      I cant say I disagree though, this is putting pressure on some of the twisted dynamics we live by indeed but i think your question doesn’t really work, exploiting people isnt the point, generating value with no regard of other life is and robotics make good slaves. The real issue is how will humans survive in an economy where there labor can no longer be used to obtain a share of the earth-pie.

      What we can do is be vocal about normalizing universal basic income which has proven to work. This way we can still be hyped about the technology. Its going to be a matter of either we do get there or we wont live to tell the difference.

      • Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
        3·
        2 months ago

        Beehaw is really my only social media unless you count personal discord servers, so not a result of doom scrolling in my case. I have just seen what hyper capitalism does to new tech (looking at you, AI). But yeah, good point, in this case labor displacement is more of a concern. The article mentions requiring servers still, so that is what brought to mind the Amazon grocery stores.

    • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
      4·
      2 months ago

      Yup. I dreamed of such things when I was young but as computers came up and labor efficiency increased I only saw an increase in the work week labor and the income disparity where the common man got less and less.

  • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    Aside from global concerns about labor displacement, somewhere like Kenya seems silly for robot staff usage in 2024

    You would expect to see this in places where labor is incredibly expensive, such that the cost of running robots (even if they are actually useful) competitively beats the cost of human labor