The recent brouhaha about Apple saying AGI is not so imminent after all, disguises a more significant reality. Even without AGI, current AI is continuing along a revolutionary path that will utterly transform society.
Figure Robotics illustrates this. Its Helix humanoid robots are getting nearer and nearer human human-level dexterity in carrying out some common factory tasks.
We won’t need AGI to develop humanoid robots capable of doing most unskilled and semi-skilled work.
Are the people obsessing over AGI, missing the revolution happening on their doorstep?
This stuff is neat, but (presently) useless.
Until humans aren’t willing to work for less than the cost and maintenance of a robot, humanoid robots will remain science fiction.
In the meantime, we should see more robots much sooner doing tasks that humans are genuinely terrible at.
