Robotic Nation Evidence

Robots replace bodies at WKOW

From the article:

"Though station management told us in April it was an outcome they wanted to avoid, it's now clear that WKOW's (Ch.27) switch to robotic cameras will result in layoffs. Earlier this week nine camera operators received letters announcing the layoffs and encouraging them to apply to be kept on as a robotics operator."

Initially, one operator can handle, say, three cameras, so they need only half the people. But then the cameras get smarter, and one person can handle six cameras. Then one person can handle all the cameras. Then no people are needed to handle the cameras, because the cameras are smart enough to do everything themselves. At that point you won't need people to read the news either, because robots that look exactly like humans will be reading the news.

The pace of this kind of thing will be accelerating. For example, in not too long the opening sentence will be, "Though management told us in April it was an outcome they wanted to avoid, it's now clear that Wal-Mart's switch to robotic stores will result in one million pink slips." See also Robots in 2015 and Robots taking jobs.