Business | Where are all the robots?

Don’t fear an AI-induced jobs apocalypse just yet

The West suffers from too little automation, not too much

Tesla Optimushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dS0aDMQoD4
Image: Tesla
|Seoul

“I think we might exceed a one-to-one ratio of humanoid robots to humans,” Elon Musk declared on March 1st. Coming from the self-styled technoking of Tesla, it was not so much a prediction as a promise. Mr Musk’s car company is developing one such artificially intelligent automaton, codenamed Optimus, for use at home and in the factory. His remarks, made during Tesla’s investor day, were accompanied by a video of Optimus walking around apparently unassisted.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Where are all the robots?”

From the March 11th 2023 edition

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