Foxconn chairman says AI and robotics will take over assembly lines

During his keynote address at Computex in Taipei today, Foxconn chairman Young Liu warned that generative AI and robotics might soon make low-wage human labor unnecessary on the assembly line. This could have huge implications that go way beyond iPhone manufacturing. A costly shift in the assembly line As reported by The Register, Liu told the audience that after plugging AI tools into Foxconn’s workflows, software now performs roughly 80 percent of the work required to configure equipment for a fresh production run. And it does so faster than humans ever could. He added that while the blend of “bots and brains” cannot replace every human (which they tried), the combo speeds troubleshooting on the factory floor. But that productivity gain might come at a huge cost for what he referred to as “low-GDP” countries: Generative AI and robotics will fill the void. (…) That is the opportunity I see when a country becomes more prosperous. The low-GDP work will be done by GenAI and robotics. ... Read full article.