Meta is quietly putting robots to work inside the mammoth data centers that power its AI systems — testing machines that can swap networking cables, restart servers, move racks and inspect hardware. The goal: cut labor costs and scale maintenance as AI infrastructure balloons, but the rollout is far from frictionless. WIRED reports Meta is trialing robots from Watney Robotics (San Francisco), Kinova (Quebec), and ABB (Zurich). One unnamed employee estimated that a successful cable-swapping robot could replace as much as 80% of the work performed in some roles — a striking figure the worker offered, not an official Meta projection. For now those machines still lag humans in speed and need supervision; they struggle with obstacles, dense cabling, battery life and visual inspections. The robotics push at Meta comes as other tech players build the software that could make robots smarter and more autonomous. In June, Alibaba unveiled its Qwen‑Robot Suite — models for navigation, object handling and physical simulation — while Nvidia researchers published work on AI agents that can train robot fleets. Still, a lack of real-world training data is a major bottleneck before robots move from labs into regular warehouse and facility duty. ACE Robotics chairman Wang Xiaogang predicted embodied AI — the ability for machines to perceive and act in the physical world — could hit a “ChatGPT moment” by the end of 2027. Robots are being tested beyond data centers, too. Bedrock Robotics is rolling out autonomous construction equipment and Mercedes‑Benz has trialed humanoid robots for repetitive factory tasks. Developers cite labor shortages and worker safety as drivers; critics point to a darker side: automation that displaces existing jobs. Workers speaking to WIRED warned that sophisticated automation might reduce demand for experienced technicians and shift remaining maintenance chores to lower-paid staff following AI-generated instructions. Meta pushed back on fears of mass layoffs in a statement to Decrypt, saying the company continues to hire and train people amid a skilled-labor shortage. “America is in the middle of its biggest infrastructure boom since World War II, and there’s a major shortage of skilled workers to fill the roles; we need more workers, not fewer,” a spokesperson said. The debate over automation’s trade-offs is playing out across the industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang describes future data centers as “AI factories” run by a mix of people, software agents and robots, arguing machines can fill labor gaps and handle repetitive or dangerous jobs. But policy thinkers like Microsoft co‑founder Bill Gates have weighed in on the economic consequences, proposing taxes on robots and AI tokens to address incentives that might make machines cheaper than paying employees. For now, Meta’s robots still require human oversight and intervention for complex repairs. But how quickly the technology matures — and how companies choose to deploy it — will help determine whether the expanding data-center footprint of AI brings new jobs or replaces them. For the crypto industry, which also depends on dense infrastructure and tight operational margins, similar automation trends could reshape staffing, costs and how facilities are run. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news