Skilled humanoid robots could help fill jobs and address challenges posed by declining birth rates and population decline worldwide.
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are advancing at an astonishing pace, with industry players envisioning these technologies as fundamentally transforming the global economy.
Executives in all sectors are jumping on the AI bandwagon, but they worry that delaying adoption will leave their businesses desperately behind faster-moving competitors.
Many companies may soon start using AI-powered humanoid robots, which could impact the types of jobs humans can have in the future.
Some in the industry believe that robots will take over and handle most tasks, leaving humans to do only what they want to do.
Some predict that AI will slowly eliminate parts of jobs, or even specific tasks within a job, that employees currently perform, potentially allowing one person to complete work that currently requires dozens of workers.
Declining population increases need for humanoid robots
Demographic changes are driving the need for AI-enabled humanoid robots that can think and act like humans.
After all, the population of the planet is decreasing.
Canada's fertility rate hit a record low in 2022. According to Statistics Canada calculations, Canadian women are giving birth to an average of 1.33 children, the lowest number in data spanning more than a century, down 7.4 per cent from 2021. That's the biggest annual decline in the past 50 years.
In 1960, Canadian women on average had nearly four children.
“The reason is access to technology and education,” said Jordy Rhodes, CEO of Sankuchuari AI, which has produced seven generations of humanoid robots, but none of them think or act completely like humans.
“When people have the option to not have children, they choose not to have children.”
Canada's economy has responded to a long period of declining birth rates by importing immigrant workers from around the world.
Rose explained that given that birth rates in developing countries have also fallen sharply in recent years, attracting immigrants with the right skills and education to meet economic needs may become more difficult in the future.
Other developed countries will likely compete for immigrants.
Rose noted that South Korea has the world's lowest birth rate, projected to be 0.81% in 2023, which would result in a 96% decline in natural population growth over three generations, if the rate continues as is, Rose said.
“This is not science fiction. This is not some weird prediction of the future,” Rose said, adding that his estimate was based on how many babies are being born in South Korea today.
He said that without immigration, South Korea's population growth could slow further, given that the country's birth rate continues to fall every year.
Fewer children means fewer workers to produce food, cars, and housing, and also fewer workers to care for the elderly.
Some might be thinking that this means you'll have to wait a little longer for your DoorDash (Nasdaq:DASH) order, or that stores may have shorter hours.
“No, that's not how it works,” Rose said. “The system breaks down. These things have a phase transition, and when enough parts are missing, they go from fully functioning to not functioning at all. What scares me is that the system our world is built on relies on our population. If that population decreases, the system will stop working and civilization will collapse.”
Big tech companies rush to the rescue
Big tech companies have recently responded to a potential surge in labor demand by investing money in producing advanced humanoid robots.
Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is using billions of dollars of his company's cash to fund a robot project he's calling Optimus.
“We're excited to see the opportunity to see how this will help our customers,” said Roger Hardy, CEO of Vancouver-based KITS Eyecare, one of the investors who has joined forces with Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos to pump billions of dollars into the humanoid robotics venture known as Fig. AI. Bib His capital investment so far is $3 million.
But Rose says his Vancouver-based company is the true innovator in humanoid robotics, and that everyone else is a copycat.
He began his mission to create a humanoid robot 15 years ago, and late last month, he said at a Vancouver AI conference hosted by KPMG and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), that his goal is to create conscious, sentient creatures with intelligence, feelings and emotions.
“There's a lot of copycats,” Rhodes said. “One of them is Elon's Optimus project, which was copied from us. It's interesting, but not talked about much. [the Musk-owned] Twitter, for obvious reasons.”
Rose said he believes Musk wants to develop humanoid robots because the labor market is much larger than the auto market.
Hardy said Bib He estimates that the humanoid robot market could be worth about $40 trillion.
The sudden increase in investment is because people are beginning to believe that it will soon be possible to build AI-enabled robots that think and act like humans, Rose said.
That's not yet the case, but companies are getting closer to being able to make it happen, he said.
Sanctuary AI, which has about 200 employees and plans to hire 50 more, released its seventh-generation Phoenix humanoid robot in April, with each successive generation making the robot more human-like.
Rose estimates that it would take 11,200 days to train an AI neural network roughly the size of a human brain to perform the task in 2020. Last year it took about 140 days. Next year, Rose estimates it could take just 14 days.
“Almost all of this started in Canada. All of this neural net stuff started here,” Rose said. “It pisses me off that all the money is being made somewhere else.”
He said Bib He said Vancouver has a lot of talent developing technology, but money flows to companies south of the border because major tech companies are based there.
Seattle's tech workers tend to be higher-paid, which helps attract top talent.
“It's not just about the workers,” Rose said. [a lower] “Business taxes. If there were less tax, businesses might do better.”
Most organizations have not yet adopted AI
A recent Deloitte survey found that approximately 59 per cent of British Columbia businesses are not using AI and are not in the process of adopting it.
Additionally, 52% of executives at British Columbia organizations said they were “concerned” that they didn't have the skills to build and use AI effectively — higher than any other province.
Part of the problem these executives cited was the inability to find and hire employees who can adopt and leverage AI.
Across Canada, 48% of business leaders said they feel their workforce is unprepared or barely prepared for the use of AI, while only 5% said their workforce is “very prepared,” according to a Deloitte survey. Global Disruption in 4D: Exploring the Intersecting Forces Impacting Canada's Future report.
“We are pleased to announce that we have received 1,000 cases of COVID-19 cases in 2019,” said Victoria Lee, CEO of Fraser Health Authority. Bib While her company doesn't yet use humanoid robots, she says it is investing “millions of dollars” in using AI.
“We have a robot that we've installed in Burnaby. [General Hospital]”It will be introduced at the Royal Columbian Hospital and also at Surrey. We've already made a lot of progress in terms of robotics and surgery,” she said.
She explained that these non-humanoid robots are specialised for surgery, able to make small holes or incisions to assist surgeons in procedures, and have been used within Fraser Health for over a year.
“We are the first company in the world to partner with Google to offer some pre-generated notes. [technology,]”We are working with Meditech and Google,” she said of the initiative, which launched earlier this year.
Previously, medical professionals had to spend time repeatedly writing parts of a patient's health record in the form of notes. With AI-based note-taking technology, notes are automatically generated and can be reviewed for accuracy by doctors and nurses.
“We're taking that burden off them so they can use that time to care for their patients,” Lee said.
She said she believes Canada needs to make further investments to accelerate AI adoption in the country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $2.4 billion investment to expand Canada's AI sector in April.
This may seem like a small amount compared to the investments being made by major US technology companies.
“If we continue to do things as usual, it will be like spreading peanut butter across the country,” Lee said. “$2.4 billion is not a lot of money. [OpenAI CEO] Sam Altman will spend money on small projects.”
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