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Collective action by gig knowledge workers is a potent method for enhancing labor conditions on platforms like Upwork, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Toloka. However, this type of collective action is still rare today. Existing systems for supporting collective action are inadequate for workers to identify and understand their different workplace problems, plan effective solutions, and put the solutions into action. This talk will discuss how with my research lab we are creating worker-centric AI enhanced technologies that enable collective action among gig knowledge workers. Building solid AI enhanced technologies to enable gig worker collective action will pave the way for a fair and ethical gig economy—one with fair wages, humane working conditions, and increased job security. I will discuss how my proposed approach involves first integrating "sousveillance," a concept by Foucault, into the technologies. Sousveillance involves individuals or groups using surveillance tools to monitor and record those in positions of power. In this case, the technologies enable gig workers to monitor their workplace and their algorithmic bosses, giving them access to their own workplace data for the first time. This facilitates the first stage of collective action: problem identification. I will then discuss how we combine this data with Large-Language-Models (LLMs) and social theories to create intelligent assistants that guide workers to complete collective action via sensemaking and solution implementation. The talk will present a set of case studies to showcase this vision of designing data driven AI technologies to power gig worker collective action. In particular, I will present the systems: 1) GigSousveillance which allows workers to monitor and collect their own job-related data, facilitating quantification of workplace problems; 2) GigSense equips workers with an AI assistant that facilitates sensemaking of their work problems, helping workers to strategically devise solutions to their challenges; 3) GigAction is an AI assistant that guides workers to implement their proposed solutions. I will discuss how we are designing and implementing these systems by adopting a participatory design approach with workers, while also conducting experiments and longitudinal deployments in the real world. I conclude by presenting a research agenda for transforming and rethinking the role of A.I. in our workplaces; and researching effective socio-technical solutions in favor of a worker-centric future and countering technoauthoritarianism
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Human-Machine Partnerships in the Future ofWork: Exploring the Role of Emerging Technologies in FutureWorkplaces
Technologies in the workplace have been a major focus of CSCW, including studies that investigate technologies for collaborative work, explore new work environments, and address the importance of political and organizational aspects of technologies in workplaces. Emerging technologies, such as AI and robotics, have been deployed in various workplaces, and their proliferation is rapidly expanding. These technologies have not only changed the nature of work but also reinforced power and social dynamics within workplaces, requiring us to rethink the legitimate relationship between emerging technologies and human workers. It will be critical to the development of equitable future work arrangements to identify how these emerging technologies will develop relationships with human workers who have limited power and voice in their workplaces. How can these emerging technologies develop mutually beneficial partnerships with human workers? In this one-day workshop, we seek to illustrate the meaning of human-machine partnerships (HMP) by highlighting that how we define HMP may shape the design of future robots at work. By incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives, we aim to develop a taxonomy of HMP by which we can broaden our relationship with embodied agents but also evaluate and reconsider existing theoretical, methodological, and epistemological challenges in HMP research.
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- PAR ID:
- 10293329
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- CSCW ’21 Companion
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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