One of the biggest scares humans have about the future is that we all may be replaced by AI workers in our working places. But here's the scarier thought - keeping your job, but having an AI boss. Back in September Hitachi was the first company to hire AI bosses in their warehouses where they issue work orders and instructions to employees meant to increase productivity in the workplace. The company says productivity has already increased in the warehouse environment by 8 percent, compared to one of their non-AI run warehouses. http://www.popsci.com/hitachi-hires-artificial-intelligence-bosses-for-their-warehouses What do you think about this idea? Humans are not "programmed" for perfection in the task execution. We might be perfect for some time, but we eventually might get tired of routine and start performing tasks at different pace and timeline. Would this approach piss our robo-boss off?
AI bosses would have to be able to accommodate various human foibles. Otherwise, they're just "schedules".
I was a plumber/electrician and would like to se a AI boss do what I did or be able to talk to people about their plumbing or electrical problems and what should be done about them.
You probably already have an AI boss. More and more often, computers are doing initial estimates, scheduling work and deliveries and designing electrical systems.
Meanwhile, the SAM (Semi-Automatic Mason) robots lay three times as many bricks as construction workers. Its creators say its purpose is to leverage human jobs, not entirely replace them. Hm. http://www.technologyreview.com/new...many-bricks-as-construction-workers/#comments
Apparently, a quarter of Canadians would prefer having an AI boss. The study, which surveyed 2299 adults across Canada, found that 26% of Canadian adults believe an unbiased computer program would be more trustworthy and ethical than their workplace leaders and managers. Among younger adults (those aged 20-39) that number was significantly higher, with 31% agreeing that an unbiased computer program would be more trustworthy and ethical than their workplace leaders and managers. http://www.intensions.co/news/2016/3/29/intensions-future-of-work
I would haver preferred a well designed AI boss at several of my jobs. Not for reasons of ethics or anything, but simply easier to find, report to, and deal with. Furthermore, I think the job of boss at most of the places I have worked would be easier to automate than most of the jobs I was doing, and the bot would require much less in the way of maintenance etc. So the payoff would be greater - replacing a higher salary at lower cost. And if the process of automation turned out to require the delegation of more decision making and autonomy to the bossed employees, that would also solve a few problems and improve both morale and efficiency on the worksite.
