And finally… unplanned obsolescence

Google owner Alphabet has sacked its robot cleaners as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

More than 100 robots developed by the tech giant’s Everyday Robotics department were helping to clean cafeterias and conference rooms in its San Francisco headquarters.

The department is now being shut down less than a year after it was formally established, WIRED reports.

The mothballing of the one-armed robots — which likely cost tens of thousands of dollars each — comes along mass global lay-offs of human employees in Alphabet and other tech companies.

A spokesperson for Everyday Robots said: “Everyday Robots will no longer be a separate project within Alphabet. Some of the technology and part of the team will be consolidated into existing robotics efforts within Google Research.”

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