Work in the Age of Intelligent Machines: The Rise of Invisible Automation

Abstract

The article analyzes how an emerging form of automation may drastically transform contemporary employment dynamics. Recent breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) make it possible to automate both manual and mental non-standard tasks. The first part of the article traces the development of AI. Whereas classical algorithms required the creation of a hermetic environment for AI to thrive, modern neural network-based AI is capable of surviving in the chaotic realm occupied by humans. Based on an analysis of changes in the nature of AI, the authors distinguish between substitutive and supplemental automation. The former refers to a complete replacement of humans by machines, while the latter indicates a selective substitution of humans in specific professional functions. In order to conceptualize professions as a nexus of automatable components, the authors employ Goffman’s dramaturgical framework. Goffman studied the social visibility of professional activity. Goffman held that any profession can be divided into invisible routines that are fundamental to it and a dramatization that makes the profession socially visible. The article demonstrates that the current utopian and antiutopian views of automation both reduce work to its visible components and neglect the logic of supplemental automation. The authors argue that the targets of modern automation are not the socially visible components but the invisible routines. In the final section, the authors develop a model that takes these invisible professional routines into account and analyze what effect this new type of automation may have on different types of professions with differing degrees of social visibility.