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from the No-irrational-AI-for-me...-make-mine-real! dept.
Ibrahim Diallo was allegedly fired by a machine. Recent news reports relayed the escalating frustration he felt as his security pass stopped working, his computer system login was disabled, and finally he was frogmarched from the building by security personnel. His managers were unable to offer an explanation, and powerless to overrule the system.
Some might think this was a taste of things to come as artificial intelligence is given more power over our lives. Personally, I drew the opposite conclusion. Diallo was sacked because a previous manager hadn't renewed his contract on the new computer system and various automated systems then clicked into action. The problems were not caused by AI, but by its absence.
The systems displayed no knowledge-based intelligence, meaning they didn't have a model designed to encapsulate knowledge (such as human resources expertise) in the form of rules, text and logical links. Equally, the systems showed no computational intelligence – the ability to learn from datasets – such as recognising the factors that might lead to dismissal. In fact, it seems that Diallo was fired as a result of an old-fashioned and poorly designed system triggered by a human error. AI is certainly not to blame – and it may be the solution.
This man was fired by a computer
What do you guys think about hiring and firing by AI? Would you agree with the article's premise?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @01:51PM (6 children)
I'd spin it another way. If you can be fired by AI (or just the computer doing braindead calculations) and no sack of flesh and blood can figure out WHY you were, then you need new management.
Seriously, being sacked by an automated system period without any review/oversight is fucking insane and irresponsible.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 04 2018, @05:07PM (2 children)
I think your spin is on target. I'd be standing outside, wondering why in hell I've spent the past xx years working for a bunch of cretins who allow themselves to be ruled by a freaking computer. Things are bad enough with the politically correct nonsense. At least that can make some kind of a twisted sense, now and then. But - a COMPUTER?!?!?! Braindead zombies, all of them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @05:17PM (1 child)
If the "manager" couldn't do anything about it, they are not a true manager. One of the legal requirements of management is hiring and firing.
Although I do love the fact that there is a broken process, any AI integration that could "fix" this process and let the AI cancel the firing, would also allow PEOPLE to cancel the firing.
But no, please tell me how AI will solve all the worlds problems in ways that people couldn't.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 05 2018, @03:55AM
Legal blame deflection. Don't sue me, the computer did that.
I noticed that the problem triggered because the victim's manager had been laid off (and didn't renew a crucial data record for the victim) and that no one could reverse the decision of the computer after being triggered by such a minor problem. Why set up a system that way? Because you want to avoid legal responsibility for the decisions of the computer system. So given the presence of laid off employees and a system that was designed to fire people without recourse, it appears that the business in question was probably planning to downsize more in some way and lay off a bunch of people, perhaps on an ongoing, permanent basis. The computer system was probably legal protection for the firings.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday July 04 2018, @11:38PM (1 child)
Agree - if the humans in this organisation can't get their shit together for 3 weeks then they need to be replaced.
By the standard of this article, I've been 'fired' twice this year so far - once when a manager forgot to extend me, the other was a bug in the company's systems this Monday. In both cases, management immediately said "Well it's obviously a mistake, we'll get it fixed" and I was back online the next day. I was also paid for the days I had no access.
Contrary to TFA's conclusion, the less automation you have in these processes, the better.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday July 05 2018, @12:46AM
Sounds like one of those made-up stories you find in womens' magazines: "Fired by my boss, " "Fired by my IT guy."
Jews are always behind the AI. Remember, all classified data about citizens, including members of government, was collected and delivered to Israel, unredacted. [theguardian.com]
That, more than anything, should have been the trigger. But everybody ignored it.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday July 05 2018, @07:44AM
And, would you do business with guys that cannot even prevent a data mismanagement to have kafkian consequences?
They are better off ruled by malevolent AI, indeed. As the lot of you is.
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