In an unconventional job combining technology and fieldwork, a San Francisco robotics startup has announced a $20-an-hour position that involves taking four-legged robot dogs on daily walks instead of real ones.
According to a job advertisement published by the company, applicants need to spend between four and six hours walking these robots in public spaces across the city. The experiment aims to develop the capabilities of artificial intelligence systems to control devices and robots in the real world.
$20 an hour to walk robot dogs
Tech startup Dimensional sparked interest after posting an ad in the Bay Area Jobs Facebook group, offering $20 an hour for individuals willing to walk robot dogs for four to six hours.
The company required applicants to be capable of safely handling equipment weighing about 33 pounds (approximately 15 kilograms), as they must carry the robots back to the company's headquarters if they malfunction during the walk.
Interestingly, the company's headquarters is located in a neighborhood called Dogpatch, adding a humorous touch to this unusual job.
The advertisement was posted in the Facebook jobs group before being deleted later.
Why does the company need people to walk robots?
The initiative is not about providing an entertainment service or a novel experience for dog lovers. Instead, it is part of a technical project through which the company seeks to develop an open-source operating system that enables robots to perform strenuous physical tasks.
Dimensional founder Stash Pomitcher explained that initial tests revealed the poor ability of AI agents to control hardware and physical equipment compared to humans. This prompted the company to rely on human operators during the robot dog walking experiments.
In statements reported by The New York Times, Pomitcher pointed out that the experiment showed AI systems still face significant difficulties in controlling physical devices, making human presence in the operational process necessary.
Consequently, these walks aim to collect more practical data to help the company understand how robots interact with their surroundings and improve their ability to perform tasks independently in the future.
Chinese robot dogs priced at $2,000
Dimensional purchased the robots used in the experiment from the Chinese robotics manufacturer Unitree for about $2,000 each.
This experiment reflects a growing trend of testing robots in real-world environments rather than relying solely on laboratories and digital simulations. It depends on human intervention to monitor performance and collect the data needed to develop smart control systems.
Although the job of walking robot dogs may seem strange at first glance, it highlights a major challenge in the development of AI and robotics: transitioning from understanding and executing commands digitally to the ability to physically interact with objects and navigate the real world.
