Wired’s video below, sketching out the automated future vis-a-vis jobs, uses the idea that smart machines are helpful collaborative robots, or “ co-bots ” that allow humans to work more efficiently. But that relationship will end when the machines become able to replicate human abilities and perform them far more cheaply.

One of the bumps along the road for roboticists is the amazing human hand, which allows Amazon’s pickers to pack boxes to be shipped to customers. Interestingly, Amazon has scheduled another picking challenge, where robot technology teams will compete for a big cash prize and a possible deal with the company.

Below, Amazon’s orange Kiva robots scoot under appropriate racks of merchandise to bring the ordered items to a human picker who packs the boxes for shipping.

Below are details about Amazon’s Robotics Challenge which will take place July 27-30 in Japan. The search is for a machine that “can recognize objects, grab them, execute tasks, detect errors and recover as needed” which sounds a lot like the picker job. Clearly Amazon’s goal is to find a machine that can at least partially replace the company’s human pickers.

With robotics technology advancing so rapidly, it seems unwise for the US government to continue importing immigrant workers. They will soon be unneeded, if they aren’t already.