Posted on 07/03/2021 5:45:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Bloomberg report details how artificial intelligence systems employed by Amazon have hired and fired contract drivers.
Called "Flex," Amazon uses AI to determine how many drivers are needed for deliveries. The app, installed on drivers' smartphones, measures whether they delivered packages on time and followed customers' special requests.
If a driver misses the mark, they are subjected to an automatic firing.
That's exactly what happened to Stephen Normandin, 63, an Army veteran who Flex recently fired. He said algorithms tracked his every move as he delivered packages around the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.
Normandin said Amazon unfairly punished him for things way beyond his control - such as locked apartment complexes. He said every job he's "given 110%," but the algorithm failed to see external factors that may affect deliveries.
"This really upset me because we're talking about my reputation. They say I didn't do the job when I know damn well I did," he said.
At the world's largest e-commerce retailer, algorithms are the boss, hiring and firing and monitoring hundreds of thousands of workers with hardly any human oversight.
Flex began operations in 2015 as a way for Amazon to get its packages out the same day to regional customers. Here's more from Bloomberg:
But the moment they sign on, Flex drivers discover algorithms are monitoring their every move. Did they get to the delivery station when they said they would? Did they complete their route in the prescribed window? Did they leave a package in full view of porch pirates instead of hidden behind a planter as requested? Amazon algorithms scan the gusher of incoming data for performance patterns and decide which drivers get more routes and which are deactivated. Human feedback is rare. Drivers occasionally receive automated emails, but mostly they're left to obsess about their ratings, which include four categories: Fantastic, Great, Fair, or At Risk. -Bloomberg
Bloomberg interviewed 15 Flex drivers who allege a robot wrongfully terminated them. They say there's no way to dispute their firing as Flex is entirely automated. One can appeal through arbitration, but that costs $200. Amazon knows delegating human resource work to machines is cheaper and more efficient.
But many of these drivers say the algorithms don't factor in real-world problems for failing to deliver a package on time, such as traffic, locked buildings, vehicle troubles, among other things. An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg:
"We have invested heavily in technology and resources to provide drivers visibility into their standing and eligibility to continue delivering and investigate all driver appeals."
Being hired and fired by AI is the new dystopic reality the working-poor must face. Amazon has a huge PR problem in treating their workers, mostly exposed during the virus pandemic. Sooner or later, Amazon will run out of workers as its high churn rate has alarmed executives.
But don't worry, automated delivery vans and warehouses are coming and will eventually displace humans working for the company. later on this decade.
“A majority of low-skill labor is coming under increasing techno-management.”
Yes, we are quickly moving to a world where your boss is an app. It affects not just grunt workers as well.
If you are one of the tens of thousands of Americans who now have a full time job making YouTube videos or Twitch streams, your livelihood is entirely dependent on optimizing for the algorithm.
It’s alarming than how evil Amazon is, but not as alarming as how many people willingly submit and use them.
I don’t have that answer either.
It will take someone more capable than me to work out an answer that doesn’t involve mass destruction or extinction.
What the elites want is to live on New Zealand and run the world from their through AI. We will have no say in anything, if they get their way.
> Companies like Amazon are why revolutions happen. <
It’s also why folks get so fed up that they band together and form a union.
And when you think about it, revolutions and unions have a lot in common. Both can get ugly, and spiral out of control. But both are reactions, not actions.
az valley is notorius for map features saying to take a route that the road is walled off ot otherwise dead ended between complexes. have to go out of your way and waste more time to re-route to where you wanted to end up.
stop feeding the beast.
I dont understand why anyone would voluntarily work at a concentration camp.
> “It’s been a nice 18 years. Have a good life.” <
A company near me is notorious for doing that. An employee there is eligible for a pension after 20 years of service. And it’s amazing how many employees are let go at their 17 or 18 year mark. ‘Hey, you took a minute more for lunch than you are allowed to. Sorry, but we’ve got to let you go.”
Not in my case. Detroit during the Obama/Granholm depression
Why Universal Basic Income of course! /s
Also I hear Antifa is hiring.
During the time of the wun where there weren’t many things open and I needed a steady job, I wound up in a Carolina based branch of midwestern electronic recycling and resale outfit.
They were about the same as Amazon but no AC in the main area. Lots of fans but in Columbia, SC that isn’t much.
It was a revolving door and I quit twice. Each time included an ER visit for essentially some organ failure or blowout.
What is a sidewalk?
Alexa: “Hope you’re having a nice weekend. By the way, I can tell you your current employment status - you’re fired.”
I think they’re getting rid of them through the covid vaccines, rendering them sterile.
“American workers are the new slaves.”
They are the wage slaves that provide the income Democrats need to maintain the welfare slaves who produce the desired crop, votes.
I probably got someone fired last week. I have the Key delivery, which means that they put things in my garage. I was expecting a delivery on Saturday, and at about noon I got a notification that my garage door had opened. Three hours later, I got home and the garage was wide open. Not only that, but there were no packages inside. I went looking for the packages and found them on the front porch. So, not only did the driver open my garage and leave it open, but he didn’t even put the packages there. (and yes, I know it was Amazon that opened the garage because my Chamberlain garage app tells me it was opened by Amazon Key delivery)
I called to complain. I hope they used it for training and didn’t fire the guy.
An app also is used on the warehouse floors to fire people when they fall behind their package picking quotas. Evil. Software companies are starting to create software the same way, the app is the boss. Disgusting really.
I wonder if we work for the same company. There can’t be many of us that still have to use Lotus (now IBM) Notes.
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