Blue collar with tie: a human-centered reformulation of the ironies of automation

• Published in: AI & society Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 2653 - 2657
• Main Author: Meisinger, Norman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Springer London 01.12.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Automation; Computer Science; Control; Engineering Economics; Human performance; Irony; Knowledge; Learning algorithms; Logistics; Machine learning; Marketing; Mechanization; Mechatronics; Mediation; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Open Forum; Organization; Performing Arts; Robotics; Skills; Society; Subject specialists; Teaching; Workforce; Working conditions; Ironies; Automation; Machine teaching; AI; Human–machine interaction; Human factor; Interactive machine learning; Human–machine systems
• ISSN: 0951-5666; 1435-5655
• DOI: 10.1007/s00146-021-01320-y

When Lisanne Bainbridge wrote about counterintuitive consequences of the increasing human–machine interaction, she concentrated on the resulting issues for system performance, stability, and safety. Now, decades later, however, the automized work environment is substantially more pervasive, sophisticated, and interactive. Current advances in machine learning technologies reshape the value, meaning, and future of the human workforce. While the ‘human factor’ still challenges automation system architects, inconspicuously new ironic settings have evolved that only become distinctly evident from a human-centered perspective. This brief essay discusses the role of the human workforce in human–machine interaction as machine learning continues to improve, and it points to the counterintuitive insight that although the demand for blue-collar workers may decrease, exactly this labor class increasingly enters more privileged working domains and establishes itself henceforth as ‘blue collar with tie.’