Machines might not take your job. But they could make it worse
机器可能不会抢走你的工作。但恐怕情况会更糟
How robots and AI change the meaningfulness of work
机器人和人工智能如何改变工作的意义
July 19th was 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.
7月19日是桌面运维和技术支持英雄们的主场。网络安全公司 CrowdStrike 照例进行了软件更新，却导致全球各地的办公室、医院和机场的电脑瘫痪。
Most white-collar workers looked disconsolately at their screens and realised just how useless they are if they cannot log in.
大多数白领都愁眉苦脸地看着自己的屏幕，意识到如果不能登录电脑，他们是多么得没用。
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.
在这种情况下，IT 部门的人员纷纷伸出援手，帮助无助的同事和滞留的乘客。那天他们的工作压力很大，但也充满意义。
If machines can add purpose to some jobs when they fail, what about when they work properly?
如果说机器出故障时，反而能让一些工作显得更有意义，那么当它们正常运作时情况又如何呢？
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.
这可不是一个无关紧要的问题。关于人工智能的讨论，很容易陷入关于工作岗位大量流失的假设性争论，或者更糟糕的是，陷入关于意识本质的假设性争论。
But technologies tend to spread in less dramatic ways, task by task rather than role by role.
但是，技术的蔓延渗透往往不那么剧烈，它会逐步渗透到各项工作，而不是各个职业。
Before machines replace individuals, they change the nature of the work they do.
在机器取代人类之前，技术会改变人类工作的性质。
That is likely to affect job satisfaction. Many employees put a higher premium on non-monetary than monetary rewards.
这很可能会影响工作满意度。与金钱奖励相比，许多员工更看重非金钱奖励。
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. ***
凯瑟琳·林（Katherine Lim）和迈克·扎贝克（Mike Zabek）最近撰写了一份美联储讨论报告，对换过工作的美国员工进行了调查，以了解他们是否以及为什么认为新职位更好；他们发现，对人们来说，对工作的兴趣比薪酬和福利更重要。
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.
正因如此，格罗宁根大学的米莲娜·尼科洛娃（Milena Nikolova）、费姆克·克诺森（Femke Cnossen）和科罗拉多州立大学的鲍里斯·尼古拉耶夫（Boris Nikolaev）最近合作发表的一篇论文发人深省。
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.
作者研究了机器人在工业环境中的普及情况以及对员工的影响。无论年龄、性别、技能和工作类型如何，机器人都全面降低了人们对工作意义的感知。
In theory, machines can free up time for more interesting tasks; in practice, they seem to have had the opposite effect.
从理论上讲，机器可以让人们有更多时间去做更有趣的工作；但在实践中，它们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.
在另一篇论文中，尼科洛娃和克诺森与卢森堡大学的安东尼·勒平特尔（Anthony Lepinteur）一起探讨了造成这一现象的原因。
They find that industrial robots make jobs less physically taxing.
他们发现，工业机器人减轻了工作对体力的消耗。
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.
然而，人类能够参与的任务却越来越少，这不仅损害了工作的多样性，也影响了人们对生产流程的理解。工作非但没有变得更轻松，反而变得更加程式化了。
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.) ***
机器并不一定会让人变得迟钝。尼科洛娃及其合著者在研究中发现，如果人们与电脑一起工作，他们并不会觉得丧失了自主权，因为比起其他方式，在电脑前，他们对机器的控制程度更多。（当然，前提是你能打开电脑。）
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.
而且，自动化对医疗保健等服务行业的影响可能会有所不同，因为在这些行业中，减少花在繁重工作上的精力可能确实意味着有更多时间与患者相处。
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.
剑桥大学的迈克尔·巴雷特（Michael Barrett）及其合著者在2011年发表的一篇论文中发现，在医院药房引进配药机器人产生的效果不尽相同。
Pharmacists felt the quality of their jobs had improved because they had more time for patient counselling.
药剂师认为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服务。
Like the IT administrators rolling back the CrowdStrike update, technicians enjoyed the enhanced status that came with knowing how to fix the robots.
就像 IT 管理员处理 CrowdStrike 更新导致的故障一样，懂得如何修理机器人能够提升技术人员的地位，他们也乐在其中。
Pharmacy assistants had a more miserable time of it, however, as their role shrank to loading medicine into the machines.
然而，药房助理们的日子就比较悲惨了，因为他们的工作职责缩减到只负责把药品装进机器里。
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.
消费者对自动化的反应也会有所不同。现就职于杜兰大学的尤金娜·梁（Eugina Leung）与其共同作者曾做过一项实验，测试了消费者对一套烹饪设备的不同描述有何反应。
People who prided themselves on being skilled chefs really didn’t like products that promised to do everything at the touch of a button.
那些自诩技艺高超且引以为傲的厨师，并不喜欢那些宣称只需按下按钮就能完成所有工作的产品。
A technology that cuts down on boring tasks is fine; one that threatens your sense of identity is not.
一项能减少枯燥任务的技术是可以接受的；但一项威胁到你身份认同的技术则不然。
It is still too early to know how AI will affect the quality of work.
人工智能究竟会对工作质量产生怎样的影响，现在下结论还为时尚早。
Some will surely enjoy using a bot to brainstorm ideas and take care of menial tasks.
有些人肯定会喜欢使用机器人来集思广益和处理琐碎的工作。
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.
然而，佐治亚大学的博文·唐（Pok Man Tang）及其共同作者的研究也表明，与人工智能助手互动较多的工作者会感到更孤独，并渴望更多的社交。
The thing for managers to remember is that machines can make employees feel differently about their work.
管理者需要记住的是，机器会让员工对自己的工作产生不同的感受。
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.
因此，新技术是通过与员工合作引进的，还是自上而下强加的，以及它们是增强还是削弱了员工的工作胜任感，这些都很重要。如果老板们忽视了这些问题，就会错失真正有意义的东西。