AI still needs people

What a Zoom cashier has to say about the depressing future of work. vox.com/culture CULTURE   My interactions with artificial intelligence have largely left me feeling pretty confident that we still need humans to do most things right. Turns out business owners agree: When employers integrate AI and other automation into their store checkouts, fast food drive-throughs, or vehicles, humans are a necessary part of the plan. Tech romantics may envision this integration as an elevated form of work, a human-robot nexus that’s somehow greater than the sum of its parts. But as my colleague Whizy Kim [writes](, it’s actually, and unsurprisingly, less than ideal — especially for the humans involved. In industries where employers are eagerly embracing AI, human roles are shrinking and often getting outsourced to exploitative labor markets overseas. The resulting quality isn’t necessarily better, but whatever’s getting made sure is cheaper to produce. This isn’t a new dynamic, Kim writes; technological advances have been degrading work and workers for centuries. In fact, it’s in labor’s history that she sees at least part of the way forward. Without collective power, the world’s workers face an ever more fragmented future. —[Keren Landman](, senior reporter, Even Better P.S. We’ve launched a new newsletter! SCOTUS, Explained brings you analysis of what the Supreme Court is doing straight to your inbox. [Sign up here](. What a Zoom cashier 8,000 miles away can tell us about the future of work [a robot and a business man facing away from each other]( Franco Zacha for Vox Questions of how a new technology will change the way we work have only become more pressing since OpenAI’s Chat-GPT burst onto the scene in late 2022. Since then, we’ve seen frenzied predictions of how [AI]( will upend American jobs — perhaps [even doing away with the need to work altogether](. Some wonder if their careers will even exist in a few years. Chances are, they will, but the tasks they do might be different. How exactly that will happen can feel obscure, but it’s been happening in much the same way for decades if not centuries. To put a human face on the way technology changes jobs, visit a fried chicken spot called Sansan Chicken in New York City’s East Village. There, the cashier takes your order over Zoom, from over 8,000 miles away in the Philippines. Another worker in the kitchen slides your order through a small window when it’s ready. These workers are employed by a company called Happy Cashier, which contracts them out to a handful of NYC-based restaurants. The big draw of Happy Cashier is that it saves the restaurants money, as the average hourly wage of a cashier in the Philippines is [about $1](, based on Indeed’s data. Happy Cashier’s “virtual assistants” make $3 per hour, according to the [New York Times](. While video calling isn’t bleeding-edge tech, the Zoom cashier captures what often happens when an industry integrates new tech into its business model: Jobs don’t really disappear, they just shrink, along with their paycheck, and this degradation is presented as the natural outcome of automation and technological progress. [Read the full story »]( Inside the bombshell scandal that prompted two Miss USAs to step down Allegations of a “toxic work environment” have once again tarnished the pageant’s reputation. [Read the full story »]( Bridgerton’s third season is its best yet — but not because of romance The fractured friendship between Pen and Eloise centers the Netflix hit. [Read the full story »](   Support our work We aim to explain what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. Support our mission by making a gift today. [Give](   More good stuff to read today - [Back to Black is the worst of bad musical biopics]( - [That’s that who espresso? Sabrina Carpenter, explained.]( - [How to fight without ruining a relationship]( - [So, what was the point of John Mulaney’s live Netflix talk show?]( - Macklemore’s anthem for Gaza is a rarity: A protest song in an era of apolitical music]( - [Meme stocks like GameStop are soaring like it’s 2021](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=culture). If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.