Jeff Brower

American Factory should serve as an eye opener. I can't believe the filmmakers became so integrated and embedded they were able to capture such raw -- and legally sensitive -- footage. For anyone wondering about the future of American manufacturing, pay attention to the last few scenes. Those robots are custom built, designed to carefully yet efficiently move glass. But the day is soon coming when general purpose robots are instructed by talking (no touchscreen except for maintenance), and you can ask them to mimic your actions to learn new skills. Then they go to work on repetitive tasks, super efficient, never violating safety rules, never sleeping. Both political parties seem clueless to this and continue to yap about about immigration, minimum wage, and health insurance as if automation is not happening. All of this chatter ignores hundreds of thousands of jobs soon to be lost to automation. In the near future, traditional unions have no role, immigrants need college degrees, and manufacturing can be located anywhere, as needed, with fewer and fewer employees. I have doubts as to whether all this gets resolved smoothly, but at the least, investing in robotics is probably a good idea.