Amazon hosting robotics and AI conference

Amazon has been hosting an “invitation-only” robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Palm Springs this week. According to Bloomberg and other sources, Amazon chief executive officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos has been mingling with the delegates at the Machine-Learning (Home) Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) event.

Bloomberg also published a story last week claiming that Google was looking to sell its Boston Dynamics robots subsidiary – and Amazon might be interested in buying the company.

As previously reported Boston Dynamics recently posted a clip on YouTube.com showing one of its robots picking up boxes/parcels and stacking them on shelves.

Amazon already owns a robotics company called Kiva and has thousands of Kiva machines operating in its warehouses (although these are not as sophisticated, and certainly not as anthropomorphic, as the robot in the Boston Dynamics clip).

Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL Group) published Robotics in Logistics trend report last week, which concluded that “robots are going to become essential in the world of logistics”. Importantly, however, DPDHL Group pointedly use the term “collaborative robots” – in other words, sophisticated machines that work alongside humans, rather than replacing them.

Amazon takes a similar public stance.

When the tech news website Geekwire ran a story about robots in fulfilment centres in August last year, it included this statement from an Amazon spokesperson: “Our fulfillment centers are a symphony of robotics, software, of people and of high-tech computer science algorithms – machine learning everywhere—and our employees are key to the process.

“There has been no job loss associated with the use of robotics in our buildings and in fact due to increased efficiencies, some of our buildings utilizing robotics have the highest headcounts in our network.”