Braun, A., Zweck, A.,

From Digital Culture & Society

Jump to: navigation, search

Article Review – The ambiguity of intelligent algorithms: Job killer or supporting assistant

Looking at the recent trends in history with the advancement of technology, since the industrial revolution new technologies have triggered social and economic change around the world. (Braun, A 2016) With the introduction of machines in the workplace, jobs have started to shift and be replaced by machines and computer systems. This has continued and when looking at the work environment today in the 21st century, traditional jobs are still being replaced by autonomous machines and computer systems at an even faster rate. (Braun, A 2016) Today almost every job is assisted by a computer or a machine to help reduce the workload that the common employee has on a day-to-day basis. With this said it is clear that there may be massive implications to the everyday workforce if machine-learning systems keep replacing current traditional jobs.

In the article called The ambiguity of intelligent Algorithms, Jobs killer or supporting assistant, Anette Braun conducts an in-depth review of Germanys future in a world where technology is increasingly taking jobs from the working class. Some of the key things her article looks at are: how autonomous computer systems pose a challenge for the middle class as well as how, intelligent algorithms are taking control of many jobs and the fact that decisions that were previously made by humans are now being made by software systems. Annette starts this conversation by asking the question as to whether or not intelligent algorithms are job killers or if they are just supporting assistants for people to use while they are at work.

One of the arguments made by the author is that technological innovations in machine learning systems is primarily driven by cost-efficiency as well as the increased demand for information technology to assist workers when working on complex decision making tasks. (Braun, A 2016) One of the reasons traditional jobs are being replaced by these systems is because it provides a larger economic opportunity for Germany where they are able stay competitive with other countries that tend to pay people a low-wage. (Braun, A 2016) Other reasons technological systems are increasingly being implemented into organizations is because automation also works towards solving an issues of a lack of skilled workers the work force. (Braun, A 2016) A robot, machine or system that is put in place to complete a task requires a fraction of the cost to train up an employee to complete the same task in most cases. One of the main issues with this that the article brings up is the fact that if low-skilled jobs, for an example assembly lines or driving jobs get replaced by systems, it is safe to say the next jobs to go could possibly skilled workers, which is what we are seeing today.

Some examples of professions that would be impacted by the implementation of machines or systems into their job would be professional fields such as medicine and law. (Braun, A 2016) These occupations increasingly involve routine tasks, which can more often then not be passed over to a computer system. For example medical expert system are already in hospitals where they are able to help doctors make more accurate diagnoses for patients in need of help. This has major implications because as more and more of these jobs are being given to computer systems, the workforce will slowly take cuts to their income or even the elimination of their job.

With that said according to Annette there are two different paths technology can go as a whole. Either we can choose to have extensive control of computer systems or the opposite, which would be the complete loss of control where systems are making decision autonomously. (Braun, A 2016) The article talks about if technology were to follow the complete control path then users would have for the most part control operational control and would make computer system only used to support the employee. An example of this would be in a situation where the computer provides a few solutions to a problem and the user is able to make an evaluation on the decisions and ultimately pick the best outcome. (Braun, A 2016) According to the article this technological development path provides the best opportunity to have less of an impact on knowledge based jobs, because people are still required to make the decision.

If technological development followed a different path, then there would be many implications for the overall workforce. As stated above due to cost efficiency technology would be imbedded into more areas of organizations leading to a lot of the large decisions being made by computer systems. (Braun, A 2016) Implications of this would be that humans would totally not be involved in the thinking and decision making process. (Braun, A 2016) Another major implication of this development path would be in the lack of knowledge humans would have on the technology and how it works. Similarly like today we are constantly surrounded by technology that we don’t understand how it works. For an example we almost all have cellphones in North America but no one really knows how they function except for a select few. This is an issue because when computer systems make decisions for us, it will be harder and harder to validate if the decision made by the system is truly the best decision without a human actually making the final call. There are also possibilities of undetected system errors; incorrect calculations and wrong decisions could all be made without us fully understanding why.

Looking at this article, probably the most important part of it would be in the authors explanation of which two ways technological development can go. Although things like driverless cars and our refrigerators ordering food for us sounds great, there are massive implications to changing large aspects of our lives to rely on technological systems. That is why articles like this are important to weigh the pros and cons, to illustrate potential threats that could arise in the economy or in society in the future with technology following the path it currently is.

A major weakness of this article would be the fact that it really only looks at Germany in-depth and doesn’t necessarily look at the global impact of technological developments. It would have been interesting to compare what is happening in Germany to other developed countries and for the article to provide an example of a country that is using a full control model for technological development rather then following the autonomous system model for technological development.

In conclusion, with the introduction of machines in the workplace, jobs have started to shift and be replaced by machines and computer systems. Today almost every job is assisted by a computer or a machine to help reduce the workload that the common employee has on a day-to-day basis. Although placing computer systems in control of the hard decision making process seems like the best idea, with further review it might not be the best choice for society as a whole. Technology definitely still needs to be connected to humans when the final decision is to be made whether it is for an organization or for the individual.


References:

1. Braun, A., Zweck, A., & Holtmannspötter, D. (2016). The ambiguity of intelligent algorithms: job killer or supporting assistant. European Journal of Futures Research, 4(1). doi:10.1007/s40309-016-0091-3

Personal tools
Bookmark and Share