Adam Smith began his wealth of nations with a description of the division of labor and an essay on how this division leads to an increase in productivity. Specifically, he gives the example of a worker who's sole job it is to make pins, and who devises a way to make them by machine, while previously, each pin was hammered out by hand over a matter of minutes, the new machine makes them in seconds.
This division of labor is often cited as the thing that makes capitalism great.
This kind of optimization can be incentivized by way of piece work. Piece work is when workers are paid per piece rather than by the hour. Piece work is outlawed in the west. In the US, it was outlawed during the great depression when the minimum wage was instated. In Europe, I'm not sure when it was outlawed, but it is illegal here as well. In Asia and India, it is still legal. I feel that things like Uber, and Amazon's Mechanical Turk, are rejuvenations of the illegal piece work payment method.
Would it be unethical to apply AI to solve Mechanical Turk tasks?
I don't know if I think that piecework should be legal or illegal. The reasons for banning it were very compelling at the time.
Edit: spelling
This division of labor is often cited as the thing that makes capitalism great.
This kind of optimization can be incentivized by way of piece work. Piece work is when workers are paid per piece rather than by the hour. Piece work is outlawed in the west. In the US, it was outlawed during the great depression when the minimum wage was instated. In Europe, I'm not sure when it was outlawed, but it is illegal here as well. In Asia and India, it is still legal. I feel that things like Uber, and Amazon's Mechanical Turk, are rejuvenations of the illegal piece work payment method.
Would it be unethical to apply AI to solve Mechanical Turk tasks?
I don't know if I think that piecework should be legal or illegal. The reasons for banning it were very compelling at the time.
Edit: spelling