Amazon has announced that it’s forming a new agentic AI team within its secretive hardware research and development division, Lab126, to begin work on physical AI. Specifically, the company is looking to develop an agentic AI framework for use in robotics, which could start to impact blue-collar jobs, especially at its warehouses.
Agentic AI is one of the latest developments in AI, superseding the previous generative AI that took off with the launch of ChatGPT. Agentic AI models are special because they can complete multi-step actions for the user to complete complex tasks.
Thanks to all the visual and audio capabilities added to generative AI in previous years, these agentic models can perceive their environment, reason, plan, and act to achieve goals with minimal human intervention.
If Amazon can successfully bring agentic AI to robots, they will finally be able to interact with the real world in a way they can’t today, as software running on a computer. Many people are concerned about AI’s impact on white-collar jobs right now, but when Amazon develops physical AI, it will also affect blue-collar manual work.
The work is going to be carried out by Amazon’s R&D company, Lab126. It was set up over 20 years ago and has created many iconic Amazon devices, including the Kindle, Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Echo devices, and more.
Who it affects, and how
The biggest impact of physical AI developed by Lab126 will be on Amazon’s warehouses and logistics. The company said it wants to create robots that can perform tasks based on natural language instructions. As usual for a big tech company, Amazon claims that these robots will be assistants, but it’s difficult to see how they won’t reduce the need for people.
Solely based on Amazon’s plans to automate work in its factories, customers will see an indirect impact from the move through faster deliveries and potentially lower costs.
The decision by Amazon to focus on agentic AI in robots is pretty interesting because so far, we’ve mainly been hearing about agentic AI limited to computer applications, such as intelligent web browsers like Opera Neon.
Why it's happening
Amazon has a reputation for being an efficient company, particularly when it comes to the employment of warehouse workers who are known to have strict restroom breaks. Creating robots that can help speed up warehouse activities will further boost efficiency at the company and could potentially reduce its costs and improve safety.
The beginning of work on physical AI is just the next evolution of AI that we could start to hear about in the coming months and years. As agentic AI gets better, companies will be looking to see what they can advance next and physical AI may be where they choose to go next; it certainly seems like this is what Amazon has settled on in this move.
If Amazon’s physical AI doesn’t lead to mass layoffs of warehouse employees, it could drastically boost worker safety. Employees could potentially be less fatigued from moving around so much, which could lead to better concentration and fewer accidents. Right now, Amazon claims that these robots will only be assistants and not replacements.
While Amazon will certainly be a leader in physical AI, given its massive wealth to throw at the problem, once the technology is available, it will likely be available for sale to other businesses to use, too.
Caveats and what to watch for
While it’s a notable development, it still sounds like Amazon is in the early stages of developing these physical AI systems, given that it has only just set up the team. We also don’t know what specific products Amazon is planning to build or the timelines for deployment.
Ever since generative AI came onto the scene, there has been discussion of AI safety. With AI moving into the physical world, it will also bring up discussion about the safety concerns. Current measures are mainly concerned with AI software running on computers, not when it interacts physically with the world.
Finally, and probably the biggest concern, what will these “assistants” do to people’s jobs? Companies will likely find themselves bringing in fewer new hires initially, but it could also displace people from their jobs.
Source: CNBC
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