# Algorithms And 'Uberland' Are Driving Us Into Technocratic Serfdom



## Hugh G (Sep 22, 2016)

Algorithms And 'Uberland' Are Driving Us Into Technocratic Serfdom










· Janet Burns 
· https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetw...land-are-driving-us-into-technocratic-serfdom
· Consumer Tech 
· I cover AI, cybersecurity, culture, drugs, and more.

Oct 28, 2018, 01:30pm

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"Experimenting with someone's livelihood is not the same as experimenting with recommendations for rom-coms on Netflix."
"When you have smart economists saying we could see benefits after 40 years of disruption, there's a problem."

After nearly 10 years on our phones and streets, Uber has had a massive impact on life around the globe. Like nearly all tech leaders, it has also caused the number of algorithms in society's key systems to explode, and rocked employment to its core.

As a result, workers increasingly see assignments and wages doled out by artificial systems rather than human managers, and have to rely on AI, not HR, when things go wrong. According to tech experts, the rise of algorithms is changing not only how we earn a living, but who gets access to jobs and other opportunities - if their data checks out - or not.

In her 2018 book _UBERLAND: How Algorithms Are Rewriting The Rules Of Work_, technology ethnographer Alex Rosenblat shows how Uber and other ride-hail apps pushed new methods for managing workers that have come at a cost, and caused plenty of confusion along the way. Starting with the systems behind Uber's main purpose, to connect available drivers with nearby riders in real time, algorithms have also come to threaten the sense of parity that drew drivers and riders to such apps to begin with.

Rosenblat explained by phone, "One of the reasons that drivers gravitated toward this platform and its algorithm in the first place is that they thought it was fair. Taxi drivers were used to having to tip the dispatcher before they got a car, so giving rides to the nearest drivers seems fair."

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But over time, it became clear that the systems behind Uber and Lyft's functions - and the impacts for their users - weren't quite so simple.

For example, algorithms in control of assigning and pricing rides have often surprised drivers and riders, quietly taking into account other traffic in the area, regionally adjusted rates, and data on riders and drivers themselves.

In recent years, we've seen similar adjustments happen behind the scenes in online shopping, as _UBERLAND_ points out: major retailers have tweaked what price different customers see for the same item based on where they live, and how feasibly they could visit a brick-and-mortar store for it.

Drivers around the country have long suspected, too, that Uber's platform gives its newest drivers more and better fares (whether or not they're part of "guaranteed income" recruitment) in order to "get them hooked," Rosenblat said. "They perceive that, over time, the algorithm learns their behavior, and is less incentivized to give them good fares; I've never personally seen proof of this, but it's definitely a hot point of discussion."

*See also: After NYC Suicides, Drivers Urge Lawmakers To End Uber's Exploitative Ways [UPDATED]*

Over the course of thousands of Uber rides and years of research, however, Rosenblat definitely has spotted a "cultural gap" between the company's engineering efforts, which emphasize AI and self-driving tech, and drivers' experiences. As of last year, Rosenblat noted, "Uber was busy hiring AI experts to work on its self-driving cars, and drivers still couldn't find a place to pee at [JFK Airport]."

"There's such a divide between who might be benefiting from this technology, and who might be getting the short end of the stick. The gap between those two things, stemming from a singular technology company, has always been really interesting and startling to me at the same time," she continued. "Uber bills drivers as entrepreneurs who can be their own boss, but in fact their boss is an algorithm."

"It has this nuance: Uber can both create economic opportunities for drivers, and simultaneously impose conditions that not only wholly undermine the idea that they're entrepreneurs, but also might limit their prospects."

A spokesperson for the taxi drivers association Elite speaks during a drivers' strike and protest against ride-hail companies Uber and Cabify in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain on August 1, 2018. (Credit: Paco Freire/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A good example of that, and frequently the source of driver anger, is the repeat pay cuts that Uber "unilaterally has the power to implement, and unilaterally does," Rosenblat said.

"One year, in January 2016, there were pay cuts in a hundred cities - that timing always interested me, because I know from my research that it takes most drivers a while to figure out what their actual pay is - and come tax time, many didn't realize they were supposed to have put money aside. They thought their take-home earnings were what went into their bank accounts," Rosenblat said.

Following such pay cuts, it's often even harder for drivers to calculate their earnings and expenses, and save up enough to pay for taxes, healthcare, food, or other must-haves. For other drivers, the most difficult hurdle on their ride-hail path is being summarily kicked off the apps, in nearly all cases with no explanation or recourse, for having less-than-perfect performance ratings.

Meanwhile, having an algorithm for a boss (and little access to company support whatsoever) has required drivers to figure out a lot of things about professional driving for themselves, on their own time and dime.

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This goes beyond deciding where to cruise around and how to accommodate customers in their own vehicles, or sorting out whether their personal insurance will cover accidents on the job.

Rosenblat notes in _UBERLAND_, "Drivers don't have an employee handbook when they start out: instead, they learn what the rules are over time through hundreds of text messages, emails, and in-app notifications." They have also formed online drivers' groups in cities around the world, "forging their own informal information networks, outside the algorithmically proscriptive realm of the ridehail apps."

"Drivers are always playing catchup to Uber's iterations," Rosenblat writes. "Uber may be changing the rules of work, but thanks to digital communications, drivers, too, are creating a workplace culture."

Thanks to the truly "countless hours" that drivers have spent moderating online groups for one another over the past several years, Rosenblat and others also expect this new, contractor-created culture to have a lasting effect on the larger world of work, and to survive in freelancers' "institutional memory," as Rosenblat puts it.

Uber drivers protest the company's recent 15% fare cuts and during a strike in front of the ride-hail service's New York offices on February 1, 2016 in New York City. (Credit: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

As a result of drivers' off-the-clock work and advocacy, perhaps, the word on the street about Uber and Lyft's algorithmic drawbacks is also spreading more widely. Rosenblat commented, "People are starting to recognize the trade-off between the Silicon Valley culture of experimentation and what that means when it comes to employment."

Compared to our shopping or social media feeds, she said, "We have a much greater sense of the sanctity of jobs because people rely on them to support their families, so there's a real clash between what's acceptable and what's not. This is where experimentation runs into a wall a little bit," Rosenblat added. "Experimenting with someone's livelihood is not the same as experimenting with recommendations for rom-coms on Netflix."

Then there's the fact that, while Uber drivers set their own schedules for their own reasons, the platform tries to steer them in fairly identical ways. Rosenblat summarizes in _UBERLAND_, "Drivers enjoy the formal freedom to log in or [out] when they want, but that freedom is constrained in practice. As drivers do their work, they must continually deal with Uber's shifting pay rates, experimental policies, and incentives."

SEE: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetw...land-are-driving-us-into-technocratic-serfdom

for full article


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

I'll buy the book. Thanks for sharing, Hugh G. Most interesting.


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## Pedro Paramo66 (Jan 17, 2018)

Jack Malarkey said:


> I'll buy the book. Thanks for sharing, Hugh G. Most interesting.


Nothing new or relevant, The truth is that as long as exist stupid creepy losers brainwashed willing to drive for charity and donations all this sharing scam would continue having social impact


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