Is Amazon Really Eliminating Human Jobs with Robots?
Amazon announced yesterday that they had added their "1 millionth robot" to their fulfillment centers. This announcement has led to another news frenzy about how robots are replacing humans. And yet, there was nothing in Amazon's announcement that predicted this. It was the Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) coverage of the announcement that has been repeated and spread like wildfire through both the corporate and alternative media today. This was the opening statement of the WSJ article: "The automation of Amazon.com facilities is approaching a new milestone: There will soon be as many robots as humans." While this statement was repeated far and wide to predict that robots were now taking over the labor market and replacing humans, other facts from this announcement by Amazon were completely ignored. Tech Radar, a technology publication, had a much more balanced coverage of this announcement: "Amazon Robotics VP Scott Dresser boasted that more than 700,000 employees have been upskilled since 2019 through training in robotics, engineering and maintenance, suggesting that human roles at Amazon could be evolving rather than disappearing. Dresser also noted that new fulfillment centers, including Shreveport, LA, require 30% more technical roles to look after the tech." So if 1 million robots have now been added to Amazon warehouses worldwide, and over 700,000 hourly workers have retrained to operate this technology, what about the technology professionals who were hired from outside Amazon, such as engineers, tech managers, tech producers who develop and maintain the equipment, etc.? That could easily make up a workforce of 1 million that offsets the 1 million robots, as Amazon admits that their fully automated warehouses require 30% MORE employees. The other thing the people predicting the end of the human labor force in favor of robots are failing to leave out of their fear mongering reports, is a picture of what these robots in Amazon warehouses look like, which is similar to the "robots" that many consumers already have in their homes: vacuum cleaner "robots". These apocalyptic articles make it sound that the robots in commercial use in Amazon warehouses are all humanoid robots with arms, legs, hands and feet. You can see a list of warehouse robots that Amazon currently uses on their website. Sorry, no humanoid robots! America's over-reliance on the technology will be her downfall, and perhaps we are already watching it happen. Did we just observe in real time how this technology failed in the REAL world during the 12-day war against Iran?