>It needed to achieve the lifting limits recommended under the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health guidelines for human workers, which include repeatedly lifting 23-kg bins and reaching shelves 1.75 meters high. Digit is designed to perform tasks like these for 20 hours a day—something no human can do.
I think that rather underestimates what people can and have done (cue John Henry story).
I worked in an Amazon warehouse for two different stints:
and it was rather like a gym membership which I couldn't skip out on (glances at exercise equipment cluttering living space) and during which I could ponder life choices and consequences while wishing there was a soundtrack/music.
That said, this sort of thing, LLMs/AIs and data centers, and so forth feel like a perfect storm leading up to singularity (as envisioned by some optimistic science fiction authors) or something far worse, cue Marshall Brain's novella "Manna":
Are these kind of robots even economically viable? I've seen them doing work that would generally pay like $3/h. And human after a week is significantly faster.
>As of late 2026, Amazon’s U.S. warehouse hourly pay generally ranges from about $18 to $22 for most roles.
That said, after a while, one can be surprisingly fast when picking --- on one occasion I walked up to a bin full of non-descript cardboard boxes, grabbed one, spun it in my hands for the six-sided box check and scanned it to verify it was the correct pick, and then was asked to explain how I had gotten that right by a trainer w/ a bunch of trainees--- it seemed like almost five minutes of explanation of minor differences in cardboard texture, box shape, construction and so forth to explain how it was that at first glance, that was the only correct choice.
I've always wondered if LLMs would arrive at a similar conclusion with on-going training as they are used.
I think that rather underestimates what people can and have done (cue John Henry story).
I worked in an Amazon warehouse for two different stints:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfi...
and it was rather like a gym membership which I couldn't skip out on (glances at exercise equipment cluttering living space) and during which I could ponder life choices and consequences while wishing there was a soundtrack/music.
That said, this sort of thing, LLMs/AIs and data centers, and so forth feel like a perfect storm leading up to singularity (as envisioned by some optimistic science fiction authors) or something far worse, cue Marshall Brain's novella "Manna":
https://karmak.org/archive/2003/12/manna/manna1.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2bqz3HPJE
we are still struggling with making a robot walk?
That said, after a while, one can be surprisingly fast when picking --- on one occasion I walked up to a bin full of non-descript cardboard boxes, grabbed one, spun it in my hands for the six-sided box check and scanned it to verify it was the correct pick, and then was asked to explain how I had gotten that right by a trainer w/ a bunch of trainees--- it seemed like almost five minutes of explanation of minor differences in cardboard texture, box shape, construction and so forth to explain how it was that at first glance, that was the only correct choice.
I've always wondered if LLMs would arrive at a similar conclusion with on-going training as they are used.