近日，有外媒曝出亚马逊（Amazon）利用AI系统跟踪每一个物流仓储部门员工的工作效率，即Time Off Task, TOT，俗称员工的“摸鱼”时间，并可据此自动生成警告和解雇通知，此举引发较大争议。
Amazon Used An AI to Automatically Fire Low-Productivity Workers
Futurism
Automation Station
This time, artificial intelligence is literally taking jobs.
Documents obtained by The Verge show how Amazon used a computer system to automatically track and fire hundreds of fulfillment center employees between for failing to meet productivity quotas — a grim glimpse of a future in which AI is your boss.
quota
quota /ˈkwəʊtə/ 这个词有3个意思，都用作可数名词，中文表达很相近，大家注意不要用错：
1) 表示“限额”，英文解释为“A quota is the limited number or quantity of something which is officially allowed.”举个：
The quota of two tickets per person had been reduced to one.
每人2张票的限额已减少到了1张。
2) 表示“配额”，英文解释为“A quota is a fixed maximum or minimum proportion of people from a particular group who are allowed to do something, such as come and live in a country or work for the government.”举个：
The bill would force employers to adopt a quota system when recruiting workers.
该法案将迫使雇主们在录用工人时采取配额制。
3) 表示“（预期或应得的）份额”，英文解释为“Someone's quota of something is their expected or deserved share of it.”举个：
I think I’ve had my quota of coffee for the day.
我想我今天喝的咖啡已经够多了。
glimpse
1) 表示“一瞥；一见”，英文解释为“an occasion when you see something or someone for a very short time”；
2) 表示“短暂的感受（或领会）”，英文解释为“a quick idea or understanding of what something is like”举个：
This biography offers a few glimpses of his life before he became famous.
这部传记展示了他成名前的一些生活情况。
While not every decision was made by a computer system, the documents — including a signed letter by an Amazon attorney describing the system — reveal how deeply automated the process really is. It's not clear whether Amazon is still using the system.
attorney
表示“律师”，英文解释为“In the United States, an attorney or attorney-at-law is a lawyer.”举个：
At the hearing, her attorney did not enter a plea.
在听证会上，她的律师没有提出申诉。
“Amazon's system tracks the rates of each individual associate's productivity,” reads the letter as quoted by The Verge, “and automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors.”
quote
注意该词与quota的区别，除了作可数名词表示“引文”、此处作动词表示“引用；引述”；此外，它还可以作动词表示“报 (价)”，英文解释为“If someone quotes a price for doing something, they say how much money they would charge you for a service they are offering or a for a job that you want them to do.”举个：
A travel agent quoted her $125 for a flight from Hangzhou to Chengdu.
一家旅行社给她从杭州到成都的航班报价$125。
相应的名词含义为“报价”，英文解释为“A quote for a piece of work is the price that someone says they will charge you to do the work.”举个：
Always get a written quote for any repairs needed.
对任何所需的修理都索取一份书面报价。
Boss Machine
Amazon spokesperson Ashley Robinson reached out with a statement that pushed back against The Verge's reporting — but failed to provide specific examples of inaccuracies.
“Similar to many companies, we have performance expectations regardless of whether they are corporate or fulfillment center employees,” read the statement.
“We support people who do not perform to the levels expected of them with dedicated coaching to help them improve and be successful in their career at Amazon.”
dedicated
表示“专用的”，英文解释为“You use dedicated to describe something that is made, built, or designed for one particular purpose or thing.”举个：
Such areas should also be served by dedicated cycle routes.
这些地区也应该可由自行车专用路线到达。
“We would never dismiss an employee without first ensuring that they had received our fullest support, including dedicated coaching to help them improve and additional training.”
dismiss
1) 表示“不予理会”，英文解释为“If you dismiss something, you decide or say that it is not important enough for you to think about or consider.”举个：
Mr. Tom dismissed the reports as speculation.
汤姆先生把这些报道当作臆测而不予理会。
2) 表示“不再考虑”，英文解释为“If you dismiss something from your mind, you stop thinking about it.”举个：
I dismissed the problem from my mind.
我从心中摒除了这个问题。
3) 表示“解雇”，英文解释为“When an employer dismisses an employee, the employer tells the employee that they are no longer needed to do the job that they have been doing.”比如the power to dismiss civil servants who refuse to work 解雇拒绝工作的公务员们的权力。
“Since we're a company that continues to grow, it's our business objective to ensure long-term career development opportunities for our employees.”
Zero History
Regardless, Amazon's fulfillment centers have seen a lot of automation over the past decade. A complex system of warehouse robots have been replacing jobs — while also sometimes creating new ones.
Working conditions are infamously terrible at the online retailer: an anonymous employee wrote for the Guardian last year about unusually strenuous demands the company places on its warehouse workers.
strenuous
表示“费力的，费劲的；繁重的；耗费精力的”，英文解释为“needing or using a lot of physical or mental effort or energy”举个：
He rarely does anything more strenuous than changing the channels on the television.
他很少做比换电视频道更费神的事。
“Through the use of digital trackers and indicators, our workday is managed down to the second,” the op-ed read.
But the automated tracking-and-firing system sounds even more egregious — placing power over employment in the hands of an AI that tracks invasive details like the amount of time employees spend “off task.”
op-ed
表示“（指文章）发表个人意见的，专栏版的，特稿的（通常刊在与社论版相对的版面上）”，英文解释为“used to describe a piece of writing which expresses a personal opinion and is usually printed in a newspaper opposite the page on which the editorial is printed”如：an op-ed article/column/page 专稿/专栏/专栏版。
egregious
egregious /ɪˈɡriː.dʒəs/表示“（错误等）极其严重的，极坏的，令人震惊的”，英文解释为“extremely bad in a way that is very noticeable”举个：
It was an egregious error for him to show such ignorance.
他表现得如此无知，犯这种错误是极不应该的。
“One of the things that we hear consistently from workers is that they are treated like robots in effect because they're monitored and supervised by these automated systems,” Amazon critic Stacy Mitchell told The Verge. “They're monitored and supervised by robots.”
- END -
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