Foxconn's Future One Million Strong Robot Army

The Chinese electronics giant plans to commission 1 million factory robots by 2014

Don't read this on your iPhone if you're standing in the unemployment line--the irony might kill you. Chinese electronics maker Foxconn--most famous in the West for manufacturing the iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products--announced that it plans to replace some of its workers with one million robots by 2014, according to TechCrunch. The company currently has 10,000 robo-workers versus Foxconn's 1.2 million fleshy, human employees. As you might expect, the robots will be deployed mainly to do repetitive tasks like spraying and welding.

Foxconn (and by extension Apple) has come under scrutiny over the past couple years for poor labor practices, culminating in a Wired cover story last spring that highlighted the 17 suicides at Foxconn factories in the past half decade.