Communicating Science (14w210)

Many of us use the internet in one way or another on a daily basis – whether we use it to read the news, make purchases, or look for directions to our favourite pizzeria. We assume that behind the curtains there’s a myriad of computer programs doing all the hard work for us, processing vast amounts of information in seconds to give us whatever we’re after. However, the reality is that although we have made huge leaps in computer science and artificial intelligence, it is still hard to program computers to do tasks that require some form of judgment. For example, things such as labeling objects found in an image, being able to tell two things apart, or transcribing podcasts are tasks that are difficult for a computer to handle.

The truth is that unbeknownst to us, many of these tasks are done by humans. In a sense, there is a veritable factory floor lurking below the internet, with thousands of people taking care of menial tasks that are too ambiguous to be performed by a computer. Amazon was one of the first companies to enter the arena of micro-tasking, or the farming off of small tasks to workers over the internet, through their service named Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is credited with coining the term “artificial artificial intelligence” to describe the service Amazon Mechanical Turk. Jeff Bezos’ iconic laugh” by Steve Jurvetson . Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The term Mechanical Turk comes from a machine invented in the 18th century that was able to play chess against human opponents. At the time this machine was thought to be an immense achievement, and was even toured around Europe, beating Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. However, it was later discovered that the machine was a hoax, operated by a human that was hidden inside a secret compartment. Similarly, Amazon Mechanical Turk allows many companies and services the ability to feign automation or artificial intelligence for tasks where there actually is a human being doing all the heavy lifting.

A fascinating look at the history of the Mechanical Turk. Video by Gábriel Priòre

Amazon Mechanical Turk has grown exponentially since going online in 2005, with over 500,000 workers in 191 countries. The workers, known as Turkers, do tasks such as identifying places in an image, transcribing blurry text, or gathering information such as phone numbers online. Interestingly, many of the tasks done by Turkers are helping companies build smarter computer programs; Turkers will look at hundreds of images of people’s faces and determine which emotion is being portrayed, which helps fine tune facial recognition software.

This new labor market is not without its issues, with many referring to it as a “digital sweatshop”, where Turkers work for hours for less than minimum wage. Critics also point out that in Mechanical Turk the cards are stacked against the workers, with employers able to refuse pay for tasks performed without providing legitimate reasons. In December of 2014, a group of Turkers got together and wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, to ask for more transparency in the system and to be afforded the basic rights of any worker.

If you are intrigued about this issue now that you’ve had a sneak peek behind the curtain of the internet, I recommend you listen to Planet Money’s new podcast, where they dig a bit deeper and actually talk to several Turkers. 

What’s really going on behind the curtain? The Turk – a character worthy of your nightmares. Kempelen chess1 by Carafe at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

By Armando Dorantes Bollain y Goytia