Amazon delivery staff 'denied bonus' pay by AI cameras misjudging their driving
- Reference: 1632769581
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/27/in_brief_ai/
- Source link:
The e-commerce giant [1]installed the equipment in its vehicles earlier this year. The devices watch the road and the driver, and send out audio alerts if they don't like the way their humans are driving.
One man in Los Angeles [2]told Vice that when he gets cut off by other cars, the machine would sense the other vehicle suddenly right in front of him, and squawk: “Maintain safe distance!” Logs of the audio alerts and camera footage are relayed back to Amazon, and it automatically decides whether drivers deserve to get bonuses or not from their performance on the road.
[3]
These workers, who are employed via contractors, claim they are unfairly denied extra pay for errors that were beyond their control or for things that don’t necessarily mean they’re driving recklessly, such as tuning the radio or glancing at a side mirror.
[4]
[5]
“When I get my score each week, I ask my company to tell me what I did wrong,” the unnamed driver said. “My [delivery company] will email Amazon and cc me, and say, ‘Hey we have [drivers] who'd like to see the photos flagged as events, but they don't respond. There's no room for discussion around the possibility that maybe the camera's data isn't clean.”
An Amazon spokesperson said alerts can be contested and are reviewed by staff at the internet giant to weed out incorrect judgments by the software.
Trans gamers are using AI to alter their voices
Deepfakes aren’t all bad. The technology is helping trans people feel comfortable with communicating in gamer communities by changing the sound of their voice with AI algorithms.
It can be difficult for trans gamers to speak in group chats when the pitch of their voice doesn’t match their gender identities; some may want to sound more feminine or masculine, typically.
[6]
A startup called Modulate is helping them generate new voices or so-called “voice skins” by using machine-learning software that automatically adjusts the sound of their speech. Some trans people have started testing the algorithms but haven’t yet used it in the wild, [7]according to Wired.
“We realized many people don’t feel they can participate in online communities because their voice puts them at greater risk,” Mike Pappas, Modulate’s CEO, said. He claimed the software only has a 15 millisecond lag when transforming someone’s speech in real time to a different pitch.
Early testers said they were impressed with the software’s capabilities, although Modulate declined to provide a live demo for the magazine.
The UK government’s ten-year AI plan
The British government has promised to invest more in the AI industry and review semiconductor supply chains to make sure it has enough computational resources to support the growth of the technology.
“This is how we will prepare the UK for the next ten years, and is built on three assumptions about the coming decade,” [8]the report 's summary began.
[9]
"1. Invest and plan for the long-term needs of the AI ecosystem to continue our leadership as a science and AI superpower;
"2. Support the transition to an AI-enabled economy, capturing the benefits of innovation in the UK, and ensuring AI benefits all sectors and regions;
"3. Ensure the UK gets the national and international governance of AI technologies right to encourage innovation, investment, and protect the public and our fundamental values.”
The first point involves funding more scholarships to help more people obtain postgraduate education in machine learning and data science. Researchers are encouraged to collaborate with others from European and US institutions.
Other parts of the plan, however, are a little bit more wishy-washy. There isn’t strict actions or policies in some parts, for example, a lot of inter-agency collaboration involves formulating yet more reports to understand “strategic goals” in supporting the AI economy or algorithmic transparency.
FedEx to begin testing autonomous delivery trucks
Aurora, the self-driving car software biz, has started testing autonomous heavy duty Class 8 trucks capable of hauling over 14,969 kilograms with shipping giant FedEx.
The trucks will be monitored by a safety driver as they drive the 500-mile round trip from Dallas and Houston, Texas, along the I-485 interstate highway, Aurora announced this month. The company is aiming to operate fleets of fully autonomous trucks without the help of safety drivers by 2023.
You can read more about it [10]here . ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/04/amazon_driver_cameras/
[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/88npjv/amazons-ai-cameras-are-punishing-drivers-for-mistakes-they-didnt-make
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YVI-LBLWWrKlO1I3RtWurQAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVI-LBLWWrKlO1I3RtWurQAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YVI-LBLWWrKlO1I3RtWurQAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YVI-LBLWWrKlO1I3RtWurQAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-voices-help-trans-gamers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/22/uk_10_year_national_ai_strategy/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YVI-LBLWWrKlO1I3RtWurQAAAQI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://aurora.tech/blog/safe-and-on-time-teaming-up-with-fedex-and-paccar
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Too soon
I'm struggling with this whole 'safety monitor' concept.
Hmm ...
I'm struggling to understand just why federal regulatory bodies allow this.
Wait ...
Yes, now I get it.
Maybe it's really not regulatory body stuff ...
B o zos now not only has to recover the cost of his divorce.
He also has to recover (and make a profit) from his New Shepard joyride, which must have also cost him a bundle.
How can he do that without gouging his employees just a bit more than usual?
ie: first employing them via contractors to avoid unionisation and then screwing them over for good measure.
Malignant asshole.
O.
Re: Too soon
You've misunderstood the Amazon story. This is not an AI driving the van, it is a camera system monitoring the driver so that Amazon can refuse to pay the driver what she or he is owed.
It is Orwellian, true, but in a different way.
Re: Too soon
You've misunderstood his comment. He's referring to the final sub-story, not the first.
AI driving assessment
The denying of bonus payments to drivers who are 'cut up' by other drivers seems harsh, although a lot of vehicles are fitted with dash cams nowadays. So there ought to be an effective appeals process. Of course if the car cutting them up is a Tesla on autopilot ...
I remember driving a motorbike around Leeds when I was a student. The number of times I was cut up by careless car and van drivers was scary. 'Sorry mate, I didn't see you'. Really? It is broad daylight, I am wearing a bright yellow reflective tabard and my headlamp is on. How much more visible do I have to be? Eventually I gave up as I considered that other road users made it too dangerous.
Re: AI driving assessment
You can not see what your not looking for, they did not see you because they where not looking for you.
Re: AI driving assessment
Oh, you mean like how many times the players in white passed the basketball?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Re: AI driving assessment
"So there ought to be an effective appeals process."
It's Amazon. Appeal is futile.
Ever try to deal with them outside of their script, like you ordered one of something but 4 showed up? They have no mechanism to return the 3 you don't want. None. Nada. Because their algorithms say it can't happen. Even when it does.
I'm the one with $200 of Amazon stuff I didn't order, wasn't charged for, and can't return because there's isn't a mechanism to even report to them that it happened. (If they only sent two when I ordered one, I could return one for credit and keep the other for free.)
10 year plan
Is it 10 years as by the time it fails your announcing a new plan, which makes it two times better than a 5 year plan.
Salesmen
To me it sounds like someone tricked the managers and sold them dopamine inducing idea of total control of their staff.
It went probably like this: "If you give us part of your budget, we will create a system that will discipline all those lazy drivers and make sure they work like robots. You will be the prince of the Amazon and Jeff himself will give you a ticket to space." all sprinkled with funnels, AI, machine learning, control, efficiency, growth, dashboards and more control.
You must have an evil mind and zero morals to do something like this.
Too soon
I'm struggling with this whole 'safety monitor' concept. Work with me here:
It's day 32 of this initiative, and I've been sitting behind the wheel for a total of roughly 300 hours cumulatively, and the thing hasn't malfunctioned yet. But today, a drunk driver loses control in front of me and swerves into my lane, and is about to cause a collision. My attention is all over the place. Maybe I'm bored to death and that boredom is making my attention wander, maybe not.
Let's start a time loop, and ask which of these scenarios might happen:
Iteration 1:
The safety driver has been instructed to let the machine drive, and intervene if it doesn't handle it appropriately.
T + 4.03 seconds, the driver has decided that the machine isn't reacting appropriately
T + 4.3 seconds, the driver tries to react but it's too late to prevent a tragic accident.
Iteration 2:
T + 1 second the drive sees the drunk is about to do something stupid and decides his life is more important than AI training
T + 1.23 seconds the driver reacts and prevents the accident, but now the AI hasn't actually proven that it would or would not have recognized the threat and responded appropriately, thus defeating the point of the initiative.
Iteration 3:
Like one, but the driver was bored to tears because no mortal human can maintain that level of attention for hundreds of hours sitting in front of a wheel they're not even steering, so he never sees the drunk coming and tragedy ensues.
This is merely one of the several major categories problems with AI drivers. If they're not already competent to drive without human minders, they shouldn't be on the road.