Are the Robots Taking Over?

By Dave Trecker

I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. A robot powered by artificial intelligence painted a canvas inspired by 19th century Impressionism. No kidding. It wasn’t exactly a reproduction, but you couldn’t miss the similarities. The brush strokes could have been Monet’s.

This couldn’t have happened 5 years ago or even 2-3 years ago. Times are clearly changing.

A warehouse in Ft. Myers now uses independently operating machines to sort and fetch all kinds of things. “Robotics allows us to save time and the customers to save money,” claims the warehouse operator. This is just the tip of the iceberg, with four other such facilities scheduled to “go autonomous” in Florida thisyear.

Not everything is that practical. For example, “robot” vacuum cleaners have been around for a long time and consumers still snap them up, even as retailers struggle to keep them in stock despite their hefty $1,500 price tag. My wife and I don’t use them, but we’ve seen them scoot around rooms, sucking up dirt while their high-tech sensors keep them from bumping into furniture or family dogs.

Another of questionable value is the “digit robot” that sorts laundry in response to human commands: “Pick up that purple t-shirt and put it in the laundry hamper.” Great fun, but not very practical.

Of more value are the automated kitchens that use AI driven robots to make salads. There are over a dozen nationwide. A company called Sweetgrass has been installing them since 2021, claiming “the food is of better quality because each ingredient is added in perfect proportion and ideal ratio.” Human sous chefs keep the machines filled with fresh ingredients while salad bowls traveling along an assembly line are apportioned with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers doled out by mechanical arms.

Of even greater value are the autonomous cars, trucks and taxis that have been under development for over a decade and are just now entering the marketplace. Uber Eats announced plans for robotic delivery vehicles in several Texas cities in 2025, to be followed by introduction in New Jersey next year. Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, is building warehouses next to existing stores and stocking them with food items to be gathered and delivered by robots. Shoppers, it is claimed, will save nearly one-third on their grocery bills.

What about people hauling? That’s coming too. After start and-stop development, Uber and Lyft, partnering with Alphabet, are introducing driverless taxis on a limited basis in Atlanta this year. Wide scale usage, including car rentals, is coming – maybe by 2027.

How about driverless trucks? They may be the low-lying fruit, easy to design for routine place-to-place delivery. Load here, operate on a few designated highways and pick up down the road.

An AI start-up called Plus recently steered a self-driving truck 170 miles between San Antonio and Laredo, Texas, without incident. Plus estimates driverless freight will save over $100,000 per truck just in labor costs.

A new world? You bet. The Wall Street Journal headlined, “AI Robots Are Entering the Public.” Analysts proclaimed, “A surge of investment is helping drive their public debut, and 2025 could be a turning point in what they can do.” Venture capitalists plunked down nearly $13 billion last year. Sectors ripe for development include entertainment and hospitality, where interactions with humans can be natural and intuitive.

But the robots won’t be taking over. They have real limitations, as I learned firsthand on a visit to a Naples hospital emergency room last year. I encountered a robot wandering aimlessly down a hallway. It came up to me, spun away, confused, and nearly ran into a nurse. A frustrated ER doc said, “That damned thing is a nuisance.”

Dr. Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer executive living in Naples.