Will AI Increasingly Become our Boss? : BBC / Doreen Lobo

Computer says go: Taking orders from an AI boss

By
Jonty Bloom
BBC
5 min
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If your first thought upon reading that sentence was "well it would be an improvement on my current human one," you wouldn't be alone.


After all, an artificial intelligence (AI) software system might be better able to organise the staff rota without messing up your holidays.


And getting some unbiased feedback from a line manager who can't be accused of having it in for you or of favouring other staff could make a pleasant change.


However, for those of us who have seen the Terminator movies rather too often, the thought of a computer, or robot, bossing you around is also bound to raise fears that the machines are in danger of taking over.


Yet this ignores the fact that we already spend a lot of time obeying machines, and we don't even think about it, let alone worry.

"A traffic light used to be a job, there used to be a person who would stand there directing the cars," he says. "But very clearly that is now a machine, and it is getting smarter - they are now putting AI into traffic lights [so they can best respond to traffic levels]."

So it seems we are perfectly willing to take orders from a machine in some clearly defined situations

What has increasingly happened in recent years, however, is that more of us are already being ordered around by computers at work. And experts say that this is only set to increase.

Take taxi firm Uber. There isn't a man or woman in the office giving out the jobs to the drivers. It is done automatically by the company's AI software system.

So having a computer boss you about is nothing to be worried about? Shivvy Jervis, founder of business consultancy FutureScape 248, and a forecaster of future working trends, is far from convinced.


"The big caveat here is we need ethical oversight of this," she says. "If you have AI being the boss, a piece of software with decision-making ability, that for me is extremely worrying, and I think it could lead to quite a dystopian future.


"A system that doesn't have adequate ethical oversight, an actual human using their sense of judgement to be able to oversee what the system is deeming to be the supposed right conclusion, is extremely damaging, and that is the true threat."


As AI is increasingly used to monitor staff, a big problem could be whether it gets the final say on which of a firm's workers get let go in a downturn, says Ms Jervis.


"A human might actually favour the person who is a single parent with two children depending on his or her monthly income," she says. "Or think this other person is well-connected, and will land on their feet.


"Software, even if it is asked these questions, cannot hope to understand the answers in that way."

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