Karen Levy - “Robotruckers: The Double Threat of AI for Low-Wage Work” - UNCC Center for Ethics

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Dr. Karen Levy is an Asst. Prof. Sociology, at Cornell, and Associated Faculty at Cornell Law
Abstract: Much attention has been paid to the risk artificial intelligence poses to employment, particularly in low-wage industries. Long-haul truck driving is perceived as a prime target for AI-based displacement, due to the fast-developing technical capabilities of autonomous vehicles, characteristics of trucking labor, and the political economy of the industry. In most of the public rhetoric about the threat of the self-driving truck, the trucker is seen as a displaced party. But the reality is more complicated. The trucker is still in the cab, doing the work of truck driving-but he is joined there by intelligent systems that monitor his body directly. Hats that monitor his brain waves and head position, vests that track his heart rate, cameras trained on his eyelids for signs of fatigue or inattention: these systems flash lights in his face, jolt his seat, and send reports to his dispatcher or even his family members should his focus waver. Truckers are not being displaced by intelligent systems so much as they are experiencing the emergence of intelligent systems as a compelled hybridization, a very intimate incursion into their work and bodies. This paper considers the dual, conflicting narratives of job replacement by robots and of bodily integration with robots, to assess the true range of AI’s potential effects on low-wage work.