We have heard of humans making robots, we have heard of humans making humanoids… maybe we even heard of robots making humanoids. But humanoids making an army of humanoids – hardly anyone would have heard of it, except in dystopian stories where robots take over the world for global dominance. But that’s soon going to be a reality.

Apptronik – an AI-driven humanoid robotics company, has joined hands with Jabil – a company invested in engineering and manufacturing supply chain, to build Apollo humanoid robots to create a workforce for Jabil’s manufacturing operations. As part of the collaboration, Apollo humanoids will not only manufacture some of the regular products for Jabil but also manufacture other Apollo humanoids. It’s a classic case of humanoids creating humanoids to increase their population.

Jabil has agreed to deploy Apollo units in its factory environment for real-world validation testing and to perform simple, repetitive manufacturing and intralogistics activities. These include sorting, inspection, delivery, fixture management and sub-assembly. As part of the pilot program, Jabil intends to bring efficiency in its production operations and augment the capabilities of existing human workforce to complete repetitive tasks swiftly. Apptronik is also seeking situations where its Apollo humanoid can be deployed, and its AI engine can improve itself by iteratively taking decisions.

The partnership with Jabil gains prominence as Jabil’s actuators require fewer components and speeds up manufacturing time, along with cost. Since Apptronik strongly believes that its Apollo humanoid can be an effective worker in several household and industrial settings, it plans to have its Apollo robot manufacture more of its kins, in order to match the future projections of demands.

This does raise a question on how ethical the production of humanoids at the hands of humanoids will be. Though it sounds dystopian, humanoids producing their own brethren does need to be regulated lest it turns against humanity.