[ben_w]

Crudely and slowly, ChatGPT has already been demonstrated controlling a humanoid robot.

The current humanoid robot startups are talking about 100s of thousands of units, and if they're attached to an AI that's even merely normal human level (or can fake it in practice) then they can run every step of logistics and manufacturing to make more of themselves.

At 100kg/unit, Starship could pop a thousand or so on the moon per launch.

So, in such a hypothetical scenario, if you don't get this right then your war game planners will be very quickly suggesting 7.3e20 individual androids burying everyone under a 43km thick layer worldwide.

[jononor]

Modern industrial manufacturing is not done by humans but specialized machines. You cannot outcompete CNC, injection molding, and lathes with humanoid robots.

[ben_w]

Sure, but there's usually someone who replies "but humans do some of it!", which I was trying to preempt here.

(IMO humanoid robots are a sign that the startup/VC market is following Musk, who in turn happened to see one on TV just before declaring to whoever the Optimus model was going to happen: they obviously could work for all this, but equally obviously aren't the sensible choice for almost anything).