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<span></span><div>Hello Maintainers community!
</div><div><br></div><div>I'm a long-time reader and fan, first time poster. I wanted to share with you all a <a href="http://datasociety.net">Data & Society</a> research report my colleague Alexandra Mateescu and I published last week, <a href="https://datasociety.net/output/ai-in-context/">AI in Context: The Labor of Integrating New Technologies</a>. The report argues through brief case studies (in retail and farming) that moving automated and "AI" systems into existing work environments requires significant —and often unacknowledged — human labor (of course, we’re preaching to the choir here on this list!) One intervention we propose is to use the language of “integration” rather than “deployment” when talking about introducing new technologies in order to force attention to the social contexts at stake, and we use the paper to explore the implications of that difference for workers.
</div><div><br></div><div>This is a public audience report (hopefully good for students, too!), though we draw deeply on literatures around labor and digital technologies (including many scholars on this list!).
</div><div><br></div><div>In particular, I think folks might be interested in the section that discusses self-check out machines and workers experiences in a southern California grocery store (pp 34-49). Below I've included some excerpts to pique your interest.
</div><div><br></div><div>If you have questions or would like to discuss further, please do be in touch!
</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,
</div><div>Madeleine
</div><div><br></div><div><span style="text-decoration:underline">Some particularly relevant passages:</span></div><div><br></div><div>"As this section has shown, the impact of these retail technologies has generally not been one of replacing human labor. Rather, they facilitate cost-cutting measures such as relying more heavily on part-time employees, understaffing, and intensifying work activities. In this context, employers can place greater pressures on frontline workers to absorb the consequences of these business decisions. <span style="font-weight:bold">In other words, the “success” of technologies like self- checkout machines is in large part produced by the human effort necessary to maintain them."</span> (44)
</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-weight:bold">Filling the gap between shoppers and checkout machines requires a different skill set than that of simply operating a check stand, more akin to that of a traffic officer coordinating vehicles at a convoluted intersection.</span> As one sales manager said, 'Usually, we want our most experienced cashiers on these robots. '" (46)
</div><div><br></div><div>"Workers monitoring self-checkout need competencies including diagnosing a shopper’s source of confusion, being able to spot potential theft, and dealing with the fatigue of maintaining attention, multitasking, and standing for long stretches of time. <span style="font-weight:bold">In some cases, frontline employees had also taught themselves to do basic mechanical and software repairs, since the machines often broke down and managers were reluctant to call in a technician. </span> Luis, a cashier in his 50s, described how he was often called upon to fix mechanical issues, such as unjamming the cash dispensers. Although this was not a part of his official job description, he gained a reputation among staff as being “mechanically inclined” because of his previous work experience repairing Bell and Howell equipment in the 1990s." (47)
</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-weight:bold">While retailers experiment with new ways of reconfiguring shopping practices through technology, frontline employees struggle to compensate for these new systems’ shortcomings.</span>" (48) <br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Madeleine Clare Elish</div><div><br></div>
<div>Research Lead <span style="line-height:16px">|</span> <a href="https://datasociety.net/research/ai-on-the-ground/" style="line-height:16px" target="_blank">AI on the Ground Initiative</a>
</div><div><a href="http://www.datasociety.net/" style="line-height:16px" target="_blank">Data & Society Institute</a></div><div>36 West 20th Street, 11th Floor
</div><div>New York, NY 10011
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