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GM installs robots at flagship EV factory after laying off 1,300 workers (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 99 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is a little surreal how old school robotic automation, which has been going on since the 60's, seems to be lumped in with AI these days like it's some kind of new wave of industrial revolution.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Efforts to automate more US factories come as companies in East Asia have already charged ahead in establishing multiple “dark factory” sites—facilities featuring near-complete automation with a small human staff to provide oversight and troubleshooting.

    AI is accelerating automation, to the point where you can automate all processes that don't require human involvement. This is why China is currently ahead of the US. They have been strategic and pragmatic in their use of AI instead of focusing solely on achieving AGI.

    The US is catching up to China. This means that Trump's "dream" of bringing plants back to the U.S. to create jobs for Americans will not be realized because they will simply build these "dark factories."

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    No way the US is catching up to China. They are far ahead in everything except weapons and war.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    And even with war, I kept hearing something like, "China may have the manpower and even the firepower, but they haven't fought a war in decades. The US has plenty of experience," but experience in what? Losing in the Middle East?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    You are so wrong I dont have simple words to describe it.

    I'm a controls engineer who literally installs automation systems. AI is mostly useless in our industry, Claude barely scratches the surface of what we do. The coding is somewhat simple. The problem is how difficult the physical interaction is.

    Having worked with Chinese controls people, they arent any better than the US engineers often they are significantly worse. No idea why. The guys from Mexico are way better from my experience.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    the Mexicans have their shit together. they're always great to work with, and they're competent. best factory I've ever been in was in Mexico. place was spotless.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    Half of our contractors flew in from Mexico for my current project. Its like 70/30 with them for good/bad. Which is better than basically any installers I've worked with previously.

    China in my experience is slavery painted over with the word automation. Any work I've done over there has an insane amount of obscurity to hide the slavery.

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