In a Manila skyscraper, 60 young people stare at screens showing shelves on the other side of the Pacific. They're not watching: they're working. They monitor robots filling refrigerators at FamilyMart and Lawson stores in Tokyo. Inside, the physical work is done by robots, and every now and then one of them makes a mistake: a package falls, a can rolls away. Then one of them puts on a VR headset, grabs the joysticks, and for a few minutes becomes the robot. He moves his metal hands 3.000 kilometers away. He retrieves the can. He returns to his station.
Japan has too few workers. The Philippines has too many, and they're cheap. Robots are the bridge. Or perhaps the trap. This is how physical labor becomes remote, turning Japanese shelves into an extension of Filipino hands. For how long?
When physical labor crosses oceans
The Tokyo startup Telexistence He found an elegant way to circumvent Japan's labor shortage: put robots in stores, operators in the Philippines, and connect everything via satellite. Since 2022, over 300 FamilyMart and Lawson convenience stores in the Japanese capital have been using these mechanical arms to fill shelves. Soon, they'll be arriving in 7-Elevens, too. The robots operate on platforms. Nvidia e Microsoft, and they move autonomously 96% of the time. The rest? They need a human.
This is where the sixty boys of come into play. Astro Robotics, the company that manages remote physical work. Each of them controls about 50 robots simultaneously. Salary: between $250 and $315 a month, about the same as a call center operator. Maybe less. But the job is different. You don't talk to people. You're a backup for a machine.
How do you explain Juan Paolo Villonco, founder of Astro Robotics, Finding workers willing to fill shelves in Japan is difficultIf you can, it costs too much. The minimum wage is high. In the Philippines, however, it's easy to find young computer science graduates, technologically skilled, who accept eight-hour shifts for a fraction of the cost.
How remote physical work works
The robots use an artificial intelligence model to calculate distances, angles, and positions. They grab cans, bottles, and packages. They put them on the shelf. It usually works. When the bot makes a mistake (which happens about 4% of the time), the operator puts on the headset and takes manual control.
The hardest problem in robotics? Replicating the human grip. The friction. The feel of metal in the hand. Getting a robot to pick up a dropped can is more complicated than it seems. That's why we still need humans. For now.
During an eight-hour shift, an operator takes control of the robot approximately 50 times. Each intervention lasts up to five minutes. Total: over four hours a day inside a VR headset.
The effects? Scientific studies on cybersickness They document nausea, dizziness, visual fatigue, and disorientation. These symptoms can persist for up to 12 hours after removing the visor.
How do you explain Rowel Atienza, a machine learning professor at the University of the Philippines, "it can be really tough. Imagine teleporting, the sudden disconnection from your surroundings, the elevation—it can all cause problems." Teleoperators confirm this: they often feel dizzy, with blurred vision. It's the price of physical labor done while seated.
The boom in tele-operated robots
The Philippines is experiencing a surge in hiring related to automation and artificial intelligence. While rich countries are laying off specialized technicians, International companies are hiring in the PhilippinesIndustrial robot operators, autonomous vehicle pilots, AI agent builders, and programs that enable autonomous actions.
Jose Mari Lanuza, Director of Research Center acronym Manila, says it clearly: “IT companies are in a race to the bottom for cheap labor.” These roles require more technical skills than just content moderation or language model training. But Filipino workers are still paid less than their counterparts in developed countries. And often without stable contracts, healthcare, or pensions.
Lionel Robert, a robotics professor at the University of Michigan, calls this situation "an economic double whammy." Previously, it was thought that automation would reduce local jobs but increase demand for skilled workers at higher wages. Instead, by offshoring those jobs, you get the worst of both worlds. For the United States and Europe, less work. For the Philippines, precarious and underpaid work.
Train your replacement
Here's the paradox. Every move made by Filipino operators serves to train artificial intelligence. The data collected by Telexistence in recent years (movements, grips, corrections) are now provided to the Californian startup Physical IntelligenceThe goal? To develop fully autonomous robots with "physical intelligence," capable of grasping and manipulating objects without human supervision.
A press release from June 2024 It is explicit: “The partnership aims to move these manual teleoperation operations towards fully autonomous operations.”
The operators know this. As one of them says: "Every time I'm called into a meeting, I'm afraid they'll tell me I'm no longer needed." Are they right to be afraid? Perhaps. The arrival of fully autonomous humanoid robots it could be a matter of years, not decades.
Some, however, believe that complete automation may never arrive. The future could be a hybrid workforce: robots, AI, automation, and humans all at once. The question is: what role will humans remain in? As supervisors or as temporary substitutes for eternally "less than perfect" machines?
The human cost of physical labor offshore
Il World Economic Forum interviewed 1,000 global employers this year. 41% expect job cuts because workers' skills will become obsolete. The share of jobs done exclusively by humans is set to decline rapidly, replaced by jobs done in conjunction with machines or exclusively by machines.
In the Philippines, this future is already present. Marc Escobar, chief technology officer of the Philippine startup Sofi AI, received an offer from anthropic (the company behind Claude) to work as an AI engineer. Salary: $1.500 a month, very high for a 22-year-old recent college graduate. He turned it down. Sofi AI she pays half, but she's Filipino.
"I can't do that because I want to see our local efforts, our company, succeed. I want to demonstrate that we too can grow with AI in the Philippines."
Others don't make this choice. They work for foreign companies because they pay better than local ones. Xian Guevarra, general secretary of the Computer Professionals Union, which represents Filipino computer engineers, is categorical:
"Filipinos are being used to maximize the profits of international companies. They are building the tools that could be used to replace them later. Technology should increase their work and efficiency, not be something to maximize profits abroad."
Physical labor without a body
Robert raises a disturbing point: losing your job to automation is one thing. Becoming the guardian of the machine that does your work is another. “You're like a replacement for the robot,” he says. It's not just a question of salary. It's a question of dignity.
The tele-operators of Astro Robotics They face immense pressure. When a robot goes down, they have to bring it back online immediately. Meanwhile, they hope no other robots go down at the same time. It's physical work that doesn't involve muscles, but nerves and reflexes. And the certainty of being replaceable.
Japan solves its demographic problem, and companies cut costs. The Philippines creates jobs, albeit precarious ones. Robots learn. Everyone wins, apparently. Except perhaps those who, wearing VR headsets in a Manila office, move metal arms in Tokyo, knowing that every gesture they make serves to make those arms smarter.
Until one day those arms will no longer need him.
