With ChatGPT all over the news and more companies turning to various forms of automation to make their operations run more smoothly, it's understandable that those who fear their jobs could be replaced by robots are feeling some anxiety lately.
Naturally, the companies fastest to embrace this technology are those that can afford it. Amazon announced the introduction of fully autonomous robots into its warehouses in June 2022. But the company has been using robotics since 2012, when it acquired order fulfillment company Kiva Systems for $775 million.
But Amazon has much bigger plans for robotics on the whole -- and Ark Invest founder and CEO Cathie Wood has shared a prediction for the company's future that is troubling, to say the least.
Welcome Our New Robot Overlords
During an interview on CNBC, Wood commented that the world is currently "at the dawn of the robotics age," with AI playing a role in the wave of tech layoffs in the first two months of 2023.
"Amazon is adding about a thousand robots a day," Wood said. "If you compare the number of robots Amazon has to the number of employees, it’s about a third. And we believe that by the year 2030, Amazon can have more robots than employees."
In June 2022, Amazon confirmed via its official blog that it currently has more than 520,000 robotic drive units.
However, the company continues to stress that its goal is not to replace employees with robots.
"From the early days of the Kiva acquisition, our vision was never tied to a binary decision of people or technology," the blog reads. "Instead, it was about people and technology working safely and harmoniously together to deliver for our customers. That vision remains today."
