I saw an AI that sorts trash at the Portland airport

I was walking through the Portland airport last week and saw a new recycling station. It had a camera and a screen showing what it saw in the bin. The screen said 'AI sorting assistant active' and it was putting plastic bottles into one chute and paper into another. It felt weird to watch a machine make those choices so fast. Has anyone else seen public AI like this doing physical jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicea262mo ago

What bugs me is how these AI sorters handle stuff that's NOT clean recyclables. Like you ever see someone toss a half-full coffee cup in there? Machine probably sprays coffee all over the good plastic and paper, then what. Bet the system still jams or makes a bigger mess than a person would if the stuff's wet or sticky.

jamie_garcia255mo ago

Whoa that's wild, I saw one at the mall food court sorting trays. It's actually kinda helpful because people are terrible at recycling, lol. The one I saw got confused by a black plastic fork though, it just kept trying to scan it. I guess they're still working out the kinks, but it's definitely faster than a person doing it manually.

eva6665mo ago

So the robot just had a staring contest with a fork? That's the future we're getting, huh. At least it's trying harder than the guy who throws soda cans in the trash.