Now, the drone-captured data is sent off to contractors at SewerAI, who run it through their AI-assisted algorithms to identify defects automatically.
Now this is the kind of AI shit (pun intended) I can get behind (pun even more intended).
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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So now all Lemmy is on board with this AI. Why is acceptable for technology to take the jobs of plumbers (usually poorer) but it's evil for it to take the job of 'artists' (usually rich)????
This is not generative AI. It is machine learning- which has been around for aaages.
Generative ai is also machine learning, and you could say that the ai is generating movements and actions for the drone. My question, that was not about the underlying technology or semantics, still stands.
I'm on board w/ both honestly, as unpopular as that may sound. If a job can be automated, it should.
I want to point out that an AI being able to do a job doesn't mean that job is now obsolete for humans. There will always be room for that human touch, which is why things like kit cars and hand-carved statues are still a thing in an era of automated car factories and 3D printers.
I've been getting into chess recently, and the best chess AIs can consistently beat top humans, yet there are still tournaments for human competitors to compete against each other. The human touch will always have value.
I think Lemmy is just scared of change. To be fair, so am I, but as long as I learn to adapt, I should get net benefits from technological advancements.
'artists' (usually rich)
I ~~know~~ think you're trolling, but…
Not trolling at all. I used to hang around an art school when I was a teenager, the vast majority of those kids came from pretty well off families. The small percentage that were of a more working class background were there to get into graphic design or the-like in college, so they didn't end up being artists.
A quick web search gives that only 8% of artists are working class in the UK which is a wealthy country, I'd bet the percentage goes down in poorer ones.
Their wealth comes from the well off families, then secondarily from the art that sells well due to the artist (through their parents) being well connected to other rich people through the school that mostly filters in favor of rich people.
So your assumption is that "lots of people are rich from making art", and not "many people trying to do art professionally have that opportunity due to their generational wealth"?
No, that's not my assumption. Where did I say that? Rich people are mostly born, not made.
in what world is a plumber poorer than an artist
In which world they aren't? Like if you have the option of working throwing paint onto a pice of cloth or taping bananas to walls would you chose to work with literal human shit to your knees and your elbows??
Also see my other comment, only 8% of artist (in the UK) are working class against A FUCKING 100% plumbers being working class.
I'd believe it if up to 0.6% of artists made millions off a single low effort 'artwork'. What is even being considered an artist here? Paint? Movie/Game? Strictly one-off millionaires? What is working class here too? Working at all or within a specific income range?
I worked industrial steel up until I got injured and in the early apprenticeship phase plumbers I knew that were working about as long as I had were making more than me, but we were all well above grocery store clerk earnings.
I don't think jobs this hazardous are generally done by plumbers. Sending in a robot instead of a human makes sense.
Especially when the robot is better at finding faults before people's homes collapse into a sinkhole.
English is not my first language and I'm no expert in sewers maintenance so substitute whatever trade/job title instead of plumber.
I'm not against this robot quite the opposite. But I'm curious about the reaction when technology 'takes the jobs' of working class people like in this case (or you know last couple centuries) being very different than when it takes the job of artists, journalists, writers...
We are all poop drones on this glorious day.
Two words I never thought I’d see together… poop drone.
Honestly I though somebody was using drones to throw shit at people below.
Well I'm glad it's this and not a drone made of poop.
Why do I believe if Mythbusters was still on the air they’d actually try this.
So much for Mike Rowes dirty jobs.
(Jk, those things were always a load of shit anyway.)
eh...
mike rowe's full of shit. don't think for a moment any of those jobs were made up though.
Man now I miss cash cab...
It's basically like saying "illegal immigrants" aren't made up for Trump. Like, obviously people coming into the country illegally exist, but the dude was just making shit up when it came to the actual numbers.
iirc he was a musician before this gig so... yeah, hard working blue collar stuff rrwwarr ford tuff hemi merika fuckyea
I remember he was shilling for trump after he won his first term, he was trying to play it off "it's not that bad" that he got voted.
"What is my purpose?"
Cue the worship of the "Master" that sends them holy shit a la "Reason" by Isaac Asimov.
“You clean poop chutes.”
"NOT LIKE THAT! NOT LIKE THAT!"
Lmao, they outsourced pooping to drones.
And I was doing it for free too.
Well, that’s a brand new sentence.
This is honestly such an uplifting news that gives me hope for the future.
Prefer this over stories like a 10 year old that raised money to make up for lack of health care or some dystopian thing like that.
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Why are you flying the drones though? Just give them wheels and call them robots.
Costs less, is easier to operate, uses less energy, less sensitive parts exposed, can be used in smaller spaces, easier to recover...
Or you could read the article. Wheels ain't gonna work down there bro.
There is no mention why wheels wouldnt work.
They only mention that flying is difficult because of confined space and changing airflows.
My guess is that the wires/tracks could get stuck in sewage, and it might make it harder to examine the floor better due to how small the drone might be.
I had the idea of a monorail system, but I guess it would have a similar issue in case the surface the rail was attached to got faulty. Might've been cool looking though.
I am asking because i know crawler robots exist and are in use since at least a few yearse. The more interesting aspect imo. is the automated image recognition which made huge improvements over the past years. For that it makes sense to have the analysis centralized within reason. E.g. pattern recognition against a larger database. There is local factors too though as materials, construction forms and so on often have historic local differences.
I fail to see, why the wheel needed to be reinvented into flying here.
Some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEMC_3ilpHw
https://redzone.com/our-technology/solo/
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/in-depth/crawler-robots-helping-to-prevent-flooding-and-pollution
They need to make mining drones mandatory, too. Humans have no business being in holes. They are not their holes, they do not belong in them.
I'm looking at you, spelunkers.
The bots yearn for the mines
Humans have no business being in holes
Thus, sex became forbidden, and humanity declined, with last generation asking their ancestors why would they impose such harsh ban upon them shortly before extinction.
Who services the poop drones I ask you...
Some unlucky roboticist is stuck cleaning poop off treads, testing sensors and resoldering connections while wearing gloves.
The same people who cleans the mess from those adult videos and the confetti from AGT/BGT.
Surely just throw it in the dishwasher
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