The company is not his first “bad buzz”. Slammed for its methods of management for aggressive or, more recently, for its handling of social networks, via the Twitter accounts of its employees, Amazon is once again talking to him. Evil. The champion of e-commerce, high-tech artificial intelligence and robotics, has seen attack from all sides by the specialized press.
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it All began with an article published on September 7, 2018 by two researchers expert in artificial intelligence, Kate Crawford, and Vladan Joler. Detailing the operation of a speaker Amazon Echo, they evoke in the course of their demonstration of the existence of a strange patent filed by the group of Jeff Bezos in 2016. Numbered 9 280 157 and named “system and method of transport for personnel in an active,” the patent contains an illustration of a large vertical cage and metallic, intended to house a human being. This project of the mobile workstation be used for handling operations in the warehouse.
“A decisive turning point in the relationship between humans and machines”
“is Hidden among thousands of patents owned by Amazon accessible to the public, the us patent n°9 280 157 illustrates in an extraordinary way the alienation of workers”, explain the two scientists over their publication. And to add: “a decisive turning point in the relationship between humans and machines”. Because in this specific case, and according to the explanations of the Amazon, the cage would allow its employees to safely enter areas reserved for robots, and more particularly in warehouses to highly automated e-commerce site.
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In response to the controversy, the head of operations for Amazon, Dave Clark, said that “sometimes even bad ideas are the subject of a patent,” and that in the present case the company did not intend to use it. It also encourages its employees to file many patents in order to appropriate the technological developments to come. To prove the good faith of his group, Dave Clark has also stated that the company had”a better solution”, namely, “a little cardigan that the partners can bring and that prevents the units robotic in the vicinity of moving”.
to Break the boundary between human lands and robotic
A necessary precaution if we are to believe the logistics of Amazon. In one of its warehouses in the Kent for example, robots with more than three hundred kilos surmounted by shelves displayed in an area surrounded by high fencing mesh chain. If a human being non-the authority enters, the company says an alarm is triggered and that the devices are designed to stop to avoid collision with the intruder. Amazon would therefore, by this patent, sought a means of breaking this border radical between human territories and robotic.
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But the border between technological progress and control of the employee is tenuous in the e-merchant. In February, another patent was also debate. It was an electronic system that allows, via a strap, to detect the movements of the hands of the employees in the warehouses to monitor their work. Amazon was also defended, pointing to the “speculation” wrong. “Every day, in any company in the world, employees use hand-scanners to do inventory and prepare orders”, said the spokesperson of the company. As for the employees of Amazon, some have taken strongly to the defence of their employer… no surprise, since among them are “ambassadors” responsible for issuing positive opinions. The loop is closed.
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