Sources with Alex Heath
00:59:56 · Ellis Hamburger, Alex Heath
[00:59:56] S1: What's the robo narrative at Davos, Alex? [00:59:59] S2: Oh my god. I mean, it's all like jobs. You know? It's like, this is... Yeah. This is such a different group than what we normally talk about on the podcast. But I I do think everyone's like, oh, you know, if robotics really hits and there's millions of these robots out in the world, you know, these are a bunch of policy folk. Like, how's that gonna impact hiring and GDP growth and all these things? And I don't know. Everyone in tech that's building this stuff seems to think that it's actually gonna be accelerant for everything, that it's not going to hurt economies, but it will free up more people, you know, to do things that they wanna do or just create net new jobs. So, yeah, there's a lot of, like, dueling narratives and dueling viewpoints, but I think everybody agrees that, like, robotics is at an inflection point. Right? And that's like... That seems to be the consensus here for sure. And, Tony, like, I I assume you agree with that. You wouldn't be doing this company if you weren't, you know, believing that. But, yeah, like, how do you how do you feel about the jobs piece of it? Do you do you feel like we're gonna find different kinds of jobs, more fulfilling kinds of jobs that get taken away, you know, from robots, or how does that work?
01:01:16 · Tony Zhao, Ellis Hamburger
[01:01:16] S0: Yeah. For sure. I think the the whole mission for us is to give people time back so that they can enjoy, they can spend time with their families, they can spend time with their interests. Right? And I think there's almost like a, like, not human part of doing chores that is so repetitive, that is so boring. It doesn't highlight what makes us unique as as humans. But at the same time, I think it's... Like, because of our positioning and the current type of work that we want to tackle, it's really not going to replace anyone's job at all. It's all about, like, saving people's time because they need to do it themselves. Right? We're replacing, like, software engineers' time to do, like, chores as opposed to people who really need to to feed their families, to do, like, housekeeping. I don't think we're touching their... Kind of their unique proposition at all because, again, it might be funny to say, but we as a robotics company, we do not bet against human dexterity because it's so good. And we always find place that we can complement them as opposed to replacing them because, like, from hardware, software, AI, we're not close in terms of getting, like, a human hand, let's say. That's why people are talking about it. Like, the hand is the bottleneck. Right? Yeah. [01:02:42] S1: Yeah. I wonder what simple chore do you now have the most respect for after digging into the hand dexterity or otherwise. You... It's like, oh, man. Cleaning a toilet, unbelievable skill.
01:02:42 · Ellis Hamburger, Tony Zhao, Alex Heath
[01:02:42] S1: Yeah. I wonder what simple chore do you now have the most respect for after digging into the hand dexterity or otherwise. You... It's like, oh, man. Cleaning a toilet, unbelievable skill. [01:02:56] S0: Yeah. I I I think just... Even just using, like, shirt folding as an example. Right? We can fold these shirts in in the midair. We fold it in a very dynamic way. We, like, fling it. We use our hand to, like, kind of tuck it in. And these are things that are very hard to learn for the robots. The... I think I definitely come to appreciate that more, like, as we work on these tasks. The other thing, like, as I said, for for bathroom cleaning, there are, like, harsh chemicals that we really don't want to get to the robot. Right? It might, like... They have beautiful paints on it. If it got, like, the the bleaches on it, it will not look great. And so when they are, like... I I think when they are... You need to interface with very harsh chemicals and you need to apply a high amount of force, those are still, like... I think remains very difficult for the mechanical side. [01:03:52] S1: Just had a vision of somebody walking into my apartment, me saying, sorry, guys. My cloyd is covered in shit. I gotta go wash them off. [01:04:01] S2: Oh, god. Maybe we should have met there.
01:04:01 · Alex Heath, Ellis Hamburger, Tony Zhao
[01:04:01] S2: Oh, god. Maybe we should have met there. [01:04:03] S1: Oh, Cloyde. Well, Tony, thanks for joining us, man. It's been great to reconnect after all this time. And, yeah, super fun to see what y'all are building. I mean, it just, you know, there's so many problem statements in tech that either, I mean, there's so many reasons things can be weird, whether it is someone who just comes straight from business school versus a researcher like yourself who spent, you know, a decade on this stuff or just attacking problems that just kind of don't really need to be solved quite yet. But I think we could all agree chores are annoying, so nice to have someone doing that on the show. [01:04:41] S2: For sure. Good to meet you, Tony. [01:04:43] S0: Great to see you guys. Yeah. Enjoyed it. [01:04:50] S1: That's it for this week's show. Thanks, Tony, for coming on the podcast and Alex for staying up late. I know you have very important people to be meeting with. So, thanks for giving us your time. [01:05:01] S2: No one is important as you Ellis always. Don't forget to like, subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts. We're access.show too. We have a website. You can find us in video at access pod on YouTube.
01:05:01 · Alex Heath, Ellis Hamburger, S6
[01:05:01] S2: No one is important as you Ellis always. Don't forget to like, subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts. We're access.show too. We have a website. You can find us in video at access pod on YouTube. [01:05:15] S1: You are so quickly fading, Alex. It's hilarious. It's obvious that it's obvious that you've been in, like, back to back meetings for, like, the last sixteen hours. And if you like this episode, please leave a five star review or thumbs up and share with a friend on the Internet or in your local Swiss village. You can find me at Hamburger on Twitter and at meaning.company. [01:05:37] S2: You can find my newsletter at sources.news. [01:05:40] S1: Access is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. This show is produced by Hooked creators. [01:05:46] S2: Bye bye. [01:05:47] S1: Bye. [01:05:59] S2: Booking.com is the easiest way from a day surrounded by noise to a stay surrounded by nature. That's nice. Go on. Book it. It's easy. Booking.com. Booking.yeah. [01:06:28] S6: Fall is the perfect time to refresh and reorganize your space. At The Home Depot, find power tools and tool sets starting at $50 to help tackle DIY projects, home updates, and more. Whether you're drilling brackets to support new shelving or sharpening your hedge trimmer blade with an angle grinder, The Home Depot has the tools you need to check projects off your list. Shop Labor Day savings at The Home Depot and gear up for fall projects with the right tools to keep your projects moving.