1: Bibliographic entry:

“Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” YouTube, uploaded by SomeOrdinaryGamers, Oct 2, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTTKBNLuPqQ

2: Summary and representative quotes:

Since this topic is focused on robots taking over our jobs in the future, we must ask ourselves which jobs? And that question is hard to fully answer with surety because they range from unskilled labor to jobs that are considered easy such as receptionist and librarian, to human-assisted robots such as the da Vinci Surgical System. When we see robots doing simple tasks such as lifting objects and struggling to walk around, we don’t pay much attention to them. But what happens when robots become more durable, smarter, and stronger? will it then become something we would worry about? Computer and Tech Youtuber Muta from the YouTube channel SomeOrdinaryGamers state “When this robot does get more advanced and the mass production gets cheaper… it is going to be there to kick people out of jobs or force them to do something else” “Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” YouTube, uploaded by SomeOrdinaryGamers. To this I fully agree with, mass production now is not very high, but that does not mean that we are safe from robots for a long time. The issue that is stopping mass production from happening is the cost and the amount of time it takes to research and develops fully functional robots for the consumer market. Robots are at the stage of still being developed with information from smaller, less time-consuming robots in terms of producing and building them such as the Roomba, Sony Aibo, and Amazon Astro. These robots are what help collect data on how and improve the robot’s AI and machine learning capabilities such as adapting to many household places and moving around with everyday tasks. 

As the video progress Muta brings up a point that I agree with, and that is what his thoughts on the purpose of these robots are. Muta says that they are being built in order to get rid of unskilled labor. Quoting “I think why they’re designing this robot is to get rid of unskilled laborers, to be honest with you… If you look at 20 grand and then you look at the yearly salary for an unskilled laborer if you pay 20 thousand once you can get rid of all unskilled labor.” If this happens this could force many people out of jobs, making them either find something else or forcing to go back to learning. And for 20 thousand dollars, it certainly is an impressive robot to have, especially when everything else on the market is expensive. This is why the main reason Tesla robot for example does not look or feel very advanced compared to a company like Boston Dynamics. 

3: Reflection and rhetorical analysis:

In this video Youtuber, SomeOrdinaryGamers goes over the Tesla robot that was revealed about 2 weeks ago in a video titled “Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot Doesn’t Impress Me…” Some may read that and say that it’s an opinion. But it does not take someone who knows robots to look at the Tesla bot and other companies such as Boston Dynamics, Honda, and students at Purdue university and state that they have much better AI and smoother robot inputs compared to the Tesla Robot. Honda in comparison uses more actuators and gyroscopic movement to make these smooth movements. But why is that? Why is the Tesla robot to the human eye seem less advanced? When we look at the price of the Tesla robot it then becomes more understandable. The Tesla robot is surprisingly only 20 thousand dollars which for a business such as robotics is nearly nothing. For example, Boston Dynamics has a robot that goes by the name Spot which costs about $74,500, it is a robot dog that is designed to specifically do risky jobs such as going to construction areas that are not fully secure. But no one is buying that other than large companies, but what about smaller companies? Well, their robot of choice is the Tesla bot. When mass production starts to increase and the robot gets more intelligent, it can easily replace a human. But overall, the Tesla bot in its current form needs more improvements and is playing catch up to us. 
 
I found that the main target audience of this YouTube video aims at us the reader and large and small companies that can buy a robot once and get rid of workers. I found that the rhetorical uses of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are to get Muta’s point across. He mentions that robots are designed to be replaceable, and humans are not. He also mentions that a yearly salary of $20,000 is more expensive than making a one-time payment for a robot such as the Tesla bot for the same price to do a far better job. And this is an issue because it will leave many without a job getting rid of unskilled labor. But of course, that will take time in order to reduce the prices of the robots and make mass production higher. During this time while robots play catch up, we can learn new skills that overall will take a much longer time for robots to produce.

 4: Quotables:

“When this robot does get more advanced and the mass production gets cheaper… it is going to be there to kick people out of jobs or force them to do something else” This is an important and thought-provoking quote as it makes me think about what life will be like when robots do take over our jobs. Some of us will have to adapt and find new jobs and others will be left without jobs simply because a robot does it better.