关注公众号，回复“进群”进经济学人精读打卡群。
概要：技术对人类工作会产生什么样的影响？本文提出了一个很有趣的观点，即AI等技术起协助作用的时候，会让工作变得更有意义，而起取代作用的时候，会让工作变得更加枯燥。（生词在留言评论区，不懂的生词也可以留言）
Machines might not take your job. But they could make it worse
机器可能不会取代你的工作，但是可能会让工作变得无趣
How robots and AI change the meaningfulness of work
机器人和人工智能将如何改变工作的意义
July 25th 2024
July 19thwas a day for help-desk
heroes and support superstars. A routine software update by CrowdStrike, a
cyber-security company, caused computer outages in offices, hospitals and
airports worldwide. Most white-collar workers looked disconsolately at their screens and realised just how useless they
are if they cannot log in. People in IT came to the rescue of helpless
colleagues and stranded passengers. Their work that day was full of stress—but
also full of meaning.
7月19日是服务台和技术支持人员大显身手的日子。网络安全公司CrowdStrike的一次例行软件更新导致全球办公室、医院和机场出现大范围中断。大量的白领沮丧地看着电脑屏幕，意识到不能登录电脑的他们是多么无用。IT人员拯救了无助的同事和受困的乘客，他们那天的工作充满了压力，但也充满了意义。
If machines can add purpose to some jobs when they fail, what about when they work properly? This is not an idle question. Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) in particular easily get lost in hypothetical debates about wholesale job losses or, worse, the nature of consciousness. But technologies tend to spread in less dramatic ways, task by task rather than role by role. Before machines replace individuals, they change the nature of the work they do.
如果计算机出了问题可以让某些工作变得更有意义，那么它们正常工作时是否让工作变得无趣呢？这不是一个无聊的问题。在讨论人工智能(AI)时，人们尤其容易迷失在大规模失业，甚至是意识本质的假设性辩论中。但是技术往往以不那么引人注目的方式影响世界，技术解决的是一个个的任务，而不是担任一个个的角色。在取代个人之前，机器正在改变了工作的性质。
That is likely to affect job satisfaction. Many employees put a higher premium on non-monetary than monetary rewards. A recent Federal Reserve discussion paper by Katherine Lim and Mike Zabek surveyed American workers who had switched jobs to find out whether and why they thought their new positions were better; they found that interest in the work mattered more to people than pay and benefits.
这可能会影响工作满意度。许多员工更看重非金钱奖励，而不是薪酬和奖金。在最近美联储发表的一篇讨论论文中，Katherine Lim和Mike Zabek调查了美国员工跳槽情况，希望了解他们是否以及为什么更喜欢新职位；该研究发现，人们对工作的兴趣比工资和福利更重要。
Which is why another recent paper, from Milena Nikolova and Femke Cnossen of the University of Groningen and Boris Nikolaev of Colorado State University, makes for sobering reading. The authors looked at the prevalence of robots in industrial settings and how that affected workers. Robots reduced the perceived meaningfulness of jobs across the board, irrespective of age, gender, skills and the type of work. In theory, machines can free up time for more interesting tasks; in practice, they seem to have had the opposite effect.
所以，格罗宁根大学的Milena Nikolova和Femke Cnossen以及科罗拉多州立大学的Boris Nikolaev最近发表的另一篇论文也是发人深省的。他们研究了机器人在工业环境中的流行将如何影响工人。无论年龄、性别、技能和工作类型如何，机器人都降低了人们对工作意义的感知。理论上，机器可以让人们可以腾出时间去做更有趣的事情；而实际上，似乎产生了相反的效果。
In a separate paper, Ms Nikolova and Ms Cnossen, along with Anthony Lepinteur of the University of Luxembourg, explore why this might be. They find that industrial robots make jobs less physically taxing. But the number of tasks that remain open to humans dwindles, hurting both the variety of work and people’s understanding of the production process. Work becomes more routine, not less.
在另一篇论文中，Nikolova和Cnossen女士，以及卢森堡大学的Anthony Lepinteur，探究了其中可能的原因。他们发现，工业机器人减轻了工作的体力负担。但是对工作职位数量的减少伤害了工作的多样性和人们对生产过程的理解。工作变得更加常规，而非相反。
Machines need not have a dulling effect. In their research Ms Nikolova and her co-authors found that people did not perceive a loss of autonomy if they were working with computers, where they have more control of the machine than the other way round. (Presuming, of course, you can turn it on.) And automation may well have a different impact on service industries like health care, where less time spent on drudge work might indeed mean more time with patients.
机器不见得会让工作变得沉闷。在他们的研究中，Nikolova女士和她的合作者发现，如果与计算机一起工作，人们不会感觉到自主性的丧失，他们能够完全控制机器。(假设你能打开机器。)对于医疗保健等服务行业，自动化很可能会有完全不同的影响。在这个行业，机器让人们在繁重工作上花费的时间减少，这可能意味着他们有更多的时间陪伴病人。
A paper from 2011 by Michael Barrett of the University of Cambridge and his co-authors found that the introduction of drug-dispensing robots into hospital pharmacies had disparate effects. Pharmacists felt the quality of their jobs had improved because they had more time for patient counselling. Like theIT administrators rolling back the CrowdStrike update, technicians enjoyed the enhanced status that came with knowing how to fix the robots. Pharmacy assistants had a more miserable time of it, however, as their role shrank to loading medicine into the machines.
剑桥大学的Michael Barrett和他的合著者在2011年的一篇论文中发现，将配药机器人引入医院药房对不同岗位的工组人员具有完全不同的效果。药剂师觉得他们的工作质量提高了，因为他们有更多的时间为病人提供咨询。就像IT管理员处理CrowdStrike问题一样，技术人员因知道如何修复机器人，而获得了更高的地位。然而，药房助理的日子反而变得更不好过了，因为他们只能负责将药物装入机器这种简单的操作。
Consumer reactions to automation can also vary. An experiment conducted by Eugina Leung, now of Tulane University, and her co-authors tested how customers reacted to different descriptions of a cooking set. People who prided themselves on being skilled chefs really didn’t like products that promised to do everything at the touch of a button. A technology that cuts down on boring tasks is fine; one that threatens your sense of identity is not.
消费者对自动化的反应也各不相同。杜兰大学的Eugina Leung和她的合作者进行了一项实验，测试顾客对不同烹饪器具的反应。擅长烹饪的人真的不喜欢那些号称按一下按钮就能做饭的烹饪器具。对于人类来说，技术减少无聊任务是有益的；但威胁到自己认同感的则是有害的。
It is still too early to know howAI will affect the quality of work. Some will surely enjoy using a bot to brainstorm ideas and take care of menial tasks. Yet research by Pok Man Tang of the University of Georgia and his co-authors also suggests that workers who interact more with AI assistants feel lonelier and crave more social contact. The thing for managers to remember is that machines can make employees feel differently about their work. So it matters whether new technologies are introduced in collaboration with employees or imposed from above, and whether they enhance or sap their sense of competence. Bosses who ignore these issues are missing something meaningful. ■
想要现在就弄清楚AI会如何影响工作质量还为时过早。肯定有人会喜欢使用机器人来集思广益和处理琐碎任务。然而，佐治亚大学的Pok Man Tang和他的合著者的研究也表明，与AI助理互动更多的员工会感到孤独，并渴望与社会接触。经理们要记住的是，机器可能导致员工对工作有截然不同的感受。因此，重要的是新技术是与员工合作，还是取代员工，是增强还是削弱了员工的竞争力。忽视这些问题的老板们会错过了一些重要的东西。
