Cornell University

Cornell University Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

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COMMColloquium

Robotruckers: The Double Threat of AI for Low-Wage Work

Karen Levy, Associate Professor, Information Science, Cornell University

2pm in 102 Mann

Reception to follow in the Hub

 

Much attention has been paid to the risk artificial intelligence poses to employment, particularly in low-wage industries. Long-haul truck driving is perceived as a prime target for such displacement, due to the fast-developing technical capabilities of autonomous vehicles, characteristics of trucking labor, and the political economy of the industry. In most of the public rhetoric about the threat of the self-driving truck, the trucker is seen as a displaced party, both physically and economically: removed from the cab of the truck, and from his means of economic provision. The robot has replaced his imperfect, disobedient, tired, and inefficient body, rendering him redundant, irrelevant, and jobless. But the reality is more complicated. The intrusion of automation into the truck cab is not solely or even primarily experienced as displacement. The trucker is still in the cab, but he is joined there by intelligent systems that monitor his body directly. Hats that monitor his brain waves and head position, vests that track his heart rate, cameras trained on his eyelids for signs of fatigue or inattention: these systems flash lights in his face, jolt his seat, and send reports to his dispatcher or even his family members should the trucker's focus waver. As more firms integrate such technologies into their safety programs, truckers are not being displaced by intelligent systems so much as they are experiencing the emergence of intelligent systems as a compelled hybridization, a very intimate incursion into their work and bodies. This talk considers the dual, conflicting narratives of job replacement by robots and of bodily integration with robots, to assess the true range of AI's potential effects on low-wage work.

 

Karen Levy is an associate professor of Information Science at Cornell University and associated faculty at Cornell Law School. Her new book, Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how surveillance and automation are affecting the trucking way of life.

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