Mercedes’ Drive into AI Androids
Photo by Harry Quan on Unsplash
If you’re the type of coder who enjoys ‘dull and repetitive tasks’ (Mani, I’m looking at you): beware. Mercedes-Benz, the European car manufacturer has decided to trial humanoid robots.
That means your days as a dev are, sadly, probably numbered. Here’s why.
The Mercedes Story
Photo by David Blume on Unsplash
Texas-based start-up Apptronik has provided a fleet of humanoid robots to Mercedes. These aren’t the simple robots that might bring your drinks in a bar in Tokyo but 5ft 8-inch human replacements.
They never call in sick and never require a paycheck. Crucially humans get bored but robots simply don’t. Mercedes doesn’t intend these robots to replace their human employees but frankly, once they see the benefits it’s only a matter of time.
The Software Development Story
Photo by Sigmund @sigmund
Let’s face it: a significant portion of software development involves boilerplate code, routine debugging, and tasks that, while necessary, are as exciting as watching paint dry.
We joke about it, we complain about it, but at the end of the day that is our job.
We thought we would be safe because of the state of the codebase (personal experience there) and the fact robots don’t sit around pretending to look productive and then occasionally getting up to get ramen.
Then today I saw these humanoid robots.
Think about it: why pay a developer a hefty salary to do something an AI can do faster, cheaper, and potentially with fewer errors? They also look considerably more attractive than most developers I know (true story).
The Beginning of the End?
Photo by Jefferson Santos @jefflssantos
Car manufacturers are generally not at the sharp end of technology. If you’ve experienced Tesla’s self-driving killing machines, you’ll have seen what I mean. Yet Mercedes's exploration of humanoid robots shows us that automation and AI are coming to get us.
It’s time to adapt, upskill, and evaluate what we as developers bring. That is instead of telling people “I don’t like people” you should think about how you can work effectively in a team — machines can’t do that.
Thinking about it, machines can’t bring your experience to the table. Since we aren’t McDonald's serving staff we can change and update the procedures we work within. If we bring that experience and value to the table we will perhaps get to keep our livelihoods.
The era of mundane programming tasks is coming to an end, but the age of creative, innovative, and strategic software development is just beginning. Is that a hopeful note for us to end on?
Conclusion
As for The Secret Developer, I’m watching this unfold with a mix of awe and a pinch of skepticism. I’m not suited to the assembly line, but I do know about software development. Automation in software development hasn’t made things easier. It took someone at work two months to write Cucumber scripts and I’m not sure they ever got used.
Sure, robots might not complain about repetitive tasks, but they can’t do all we humans can. They don’t make the leadership team look powerful by increasing the headcount, so at least we humans bring something to the table.