Brainy item-picking robots show up for warehouse duty

At a warehouse on the outskirts of Berlin recently, a new addition to the warehouse, a robot, drew press attention. The New York Times called the component-sorting robot "a major advance in artificial intelligence and the ability of machines to perform human labor." A video demo of the robot in action revealed the robot placing various items, with different shapes, in different containers. "As millions of products move through warehouses run by Amazon, Walmart and other retailers, low-wage workers must comb through bin after bin of random stuff--from clothes and shoes to electronic equipment--so that each item can be packaged and sent on its way. Machines had not really been up to the task, until now," said The New York Times.