The University of Chicago Press Waiting for Robots: The Hired Hands of Automation

"Artificial Intelligence fuels both panic and enthusiasm. Technologists are inclined to give their creations leeway, pretend they're animated beings, and consider them efficient. Users complain when these technologies don't obey; we worry about their influence on our choices and our livelihoods; and we yearn for their convenience. We see ourselves reflected in them, and we treat them as something entirely new. However unwillingly, when we overestimate the performance of these tools, we fail to recognize how our fellow humans contribute to their efficiency. In this bracing and powerful book, sociologist and award-winning author Antonio Casilli uses up-to-the-minute research to show how AI continues to exploit human labor, including yours. He connects the diverse activities of today's tech laborers: platform laborers, like Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts; remote workers, performing atomized tasks like data entry on Amazon Mechanical Turk; and you, as you evaluate text or images to show you're not a robot, react to Facebook posts, or approve ChatGPT output. Using diverse examples, Casilli reveals that most "automation" still requires human labor, showing both tomorrow's threats and today's consequences for failing to recognize and compensate human workers"-- An essential investigation that pulls back the curtain on automation, like AI, to show human workers’ hidden labor. Artificial Intelligence fuels both enthusiasm and panic. Technologists are inclined to give their creations leeway, pretend they’re animated beings, and consider them efficient. As users, we may complain when these technologies don’t obey, or worry about their influence on our choices and our livelihoods. And yet, we also yearn for their convenience, see ourselves reflected in them, and treat them as something entirely new. But when we overestimate the automation of these tools, award-winning author Antonio A. Casilli argues, we fail to recognize how our fellow humans are essential to their efficiency. The danger is not that robots will take our jobs, but that humans will have to do theirs. In this bracing and powerful book, Casilli uses up-to-the-minute research to show how today’s technologies, including AI, continue to exploit human labor—even ours. He connects the diverse activities of today’s tech laborers: platform workers, like Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts; “micro workers,” including those performing atomized tasks like data entry on Amazon Mechanical Turk; and the rest of us, as we evaluate text or images to show we’re not robots, react to Facebook posts, or approve or improve the output of generative AI. As Casilli shows us, algorithms, search engines, and voice assistants wouldn’t function without unpaid or underpaid human contributions. Further, he warns that if we fail to recognize this human work, we risk a dark future for all human labor. Waiting for Robots urges us to move beyond the simplistic notion that machines are intelligent and autonomous. As the proverbial Godot, robots are the bearers of a messianic promise that is always postponed. Instead of bringing prosperity for all, they discipline the workforce, so we don’t dream of a world without drudgery and exploitation. Casilli’s eye-opening book makes clear that most “automation” requires human labor—and likely always will—shedding new light on today’s consequences and tomorrow’s threats of failing to recognize and compensate the “click workers” of today. Autorid: Antonio A. Casilli, Sarah T. Roberts, Saskia Brown