A plasterer in the US makes about $57,000 a year. Unitree lists its full-size humanoid robot at $29,900.
That's roughly six months of one worker's pay for a machine that never sleeps, never eats and never calls in sick.
Then this video showed up. And people can't agree if it's even real.
A robot on wooden scaffolding. A worker below fills a bowl with wet mortar. The robot scoops it, throws it straight up, and it sticks to the ceiling.
Then it bends down for the next bowl like it's been doing this for 20 years.
That's one of the oldest jobs on any building site. People still do it by hand, one throw at a time, and it wrecks their backs and shoulders.
Now do the math. A person works one shift. A robot that only stops to charge could, in theory, cover three. That's about $170,000 a year in plasterer wages, replaced by one $29,900 machine.
And it's getting cheaper. Elon Musk says Tesla's Optimus will sell for $20,000 to $30,000 once production ramps up.
The case for fake: the clip is 12 seconds long, nobody has said who built this robot, and AI video got scary good this year. Even Tesla confirmed its robots at a 2024 event got help from remote operators.
The case for real: humanoids already fold laundry and sort parts on camera. A ceiling doesn't care who threw the mortar.
So is this the end of the plasterer, or just a really good AI video?
Hoogarden @0xHoogarden
