Humanoid robots: which approach will win the race?

The ultimate aim for robot makers is to build a fully general-purpose machine that can pretty much perform any task that we can do. At that point we'll have robots that can finally relieve us of the daily drudgery of doing the laundry, washing the dishes and putting out the trash.In the mean time, there are two distinct approaches being followed by robotics companies, says Arjun Dutt, a partner at Bain & Company, who recently discussed the global consultancy's views on how these technologies are evolving and what's influencing their deployment.The first is to look at specific tasks, like those repeatedly needed in factories and warehouses, for example, and build robots that can takeover — part of the attraction here is the labour shortage in the advanced economies. This isn't generally an issue in the global south, where labour is available but skilled labour requires training at scale.The second approach is far more ambitious, because it's about solving general robotic intelligence and capabilities in unconstrained settings, Arjun points out. Arjun is a former tech entrepreneur himself. He is an electrical and computer engineer by training and a specialist in commercial applications of AI technologies.Catch the full conversation via the related video link. Here's two minutes on Arjun's viewpoint, explaining the two divergent approaches briefly.