I had a career in the robotics field for almost 5 years a while ago. I think my experience is best summed up bye a business analysis done by someone who actually went on to do several y combinator startups. Very smart kid at the time.
His report basically said that anything you want a robot to do, no matter how difficult or dangerous, you can get a human to do for a few dollars more than they would charge for safe, easy work.
In trying to create machines that have anything close to the capabilities of a human being, you're competing with billions of people, many of whom are desperate for work. You're also competing with millions of years of evolution.
Then again, when they reach a critical capability level, I suspect robots will suddenly be everywhere and doing tons of things we don't like to do. But it's very binary, and until you can really compete with human beings effectively, there's basically no market for it.
His report basically said that anything you want a robot to do, no matter how difficult or dangerous, you can get a human to do for a few dollars more than they would charge for safe, easy work.
In trying to create machines that have anything close to the capabilities of a human being, you're competing with billions of people, many of whom are desperate for work. You're also competing with millions of years of evolution.
Then again, when they reach a critical capability level, I suspect robots will suddenly be everywhere and doing tons of things we don't like to do. But it's very binary, and until you can really compete with human beings effectively, there's basically no market for it.