德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin

Possibility of New Work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Styles through Collaboration between Humans and AI Updated 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin November 2020

Professor Morishima Atsuyuki at the University of Tsukuba (Library, 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinformation and Media Science) is work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to br德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing about “Cyborg Crowd,” 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin which people and AI work together to carry out a project. By break德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing down work 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto small micro-tasks that can be easily processed, and by shar德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing them with AI and a large number of people, his team is try德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to reduce time and ability constra德赢ac米兰官方合作vwints and to seek possibilities for new work styles. The goal is a society where everyone can use AI as a labor force and a society where people can choose from a wide range of work environments.

Enhanc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Crowd-Sourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing
Simplify Work-Shar德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing by Divid德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Work 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto Micro-tasks

The development of 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinformation technology has created a new form of employment called crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing. It literally means to outsource a certa德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin workload to a dispersed crowd of people. A task is presented to an unspecified number of people onl德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine, and 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwindividuals or groups with requisite skills and knowledge to match the task provide the labor. Hir德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing costs used to be a significant expenditure to companies, but that is no longer necessary with crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing.

When an order is placed at Uber Eats─a food delivery service─the location of the store and the delivery address are displayed onl德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine. Someone who can respond at that specific moment undertakes the delivery. Eat德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing and dr德赢ac米兰官方合作vwink德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing establishments can provide home delivery services without hir德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing their own delivery staff, and the delivery people can work whenever and wherever they want.

Crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing is spread德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing rapidly and is expected to become even more popular 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the future. Prof. Morishima Atsuyuki (Library, 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinformation and Media Science, University of Tsukuba) is try德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to enhance conventional crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinclude AI by creat德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a user-friendly mechanism called “Cyborg Crowd”. “德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the future, it is expected that AI will work through the crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing model, but AI is still not an easily available technology. Therefore, we are try德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to create an environment where anyone can easily recruit AI labor, and to enable everyone to work regardless of their situation or challenges.”

Even now, it is possible to request development of AI through crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing. However, it is difficult for non-experts to determ德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine where and how to fix an AI system when it does not work. Not everyone would be able to use the systems as 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwintended. Thus, 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinstead of develop德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a s德赢ac米兰官方合作vwingle AI system, the idea is to regard multiple AIs as "crowd workers" and to allocate work to them. This is like crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing, which asks an unspecified number of people to do certa德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin tasks even though it is unclear if the workers can be trusted or what their actual abilities are. To counter these potential problems, it is useful to have both technology that selects suitable people and technology that requests multiple people to 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwintegrate results if a s德赢ac米兰官方合作vwingle worker’s quality can’t be ascerta德赢ac米兰官方合作vwined. These two technologies can expand to select and comb德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine necessary AI to complete the outsourced task 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin an optimal way.

Cyborg Crowd breaks down work 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto smaller tasks called micro-tasks and allocates these micro-tasks to both humans and AI at the same time (Fig. 1). It is difficult to create an AI system that can handle an entire project from beg德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinn德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to end. A system that encompasses AI that excels 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin certa德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin parts of a task may already exist; utiliz德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing such a system would 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwincrease productivity, and humans can undertake the tasks that cannot be handled by AI. S德赢ac米兰官方合作vwince micro-tasks can be completed 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin a very short time, people work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing under the conventional system will have far fewer tasks tak德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing up their time. By divid德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing and allocat德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing tasks, both workers and AI can flourish.

Quickly Grasp德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Disaster Situations
An 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinternational Disaster Prevention Drill with AI

One of the applications that Prof. Morishima's group envisioned from the beg德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinn德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing is disaster response. It is very difficult to build and operate a new system at a confus德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing disaster site. However, if necessary, measures to control the damage are broken down 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto micro-tasks and shared by the exist德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing mechanisms and people 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin undamaged areas, countermeasures could be provided more quickly. The “德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinternational Cyber Disaster Response Drill” of October 2019 demonstrated this idea. 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin addition to Dr. Morishima and other CREST research teams, local governments that experienced large-scale disasters 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the past participated, 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinclud德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Ehime Prefecture of Japan, Banda Aceh City of 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwindonesia (north of Sumatra island), and Syiah Kuala University 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin Banda Aceh.

Assum德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing that 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinundation or flood damage had occurred, the drill aimed to promptly grasp the situation and provide 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinformation for local governments to take countermeasures (Fig. 2). Satellite aerial photographs of the disaster area were broken down 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto smaller grids, and respondents were asked to judge whether each photograph looked flooded (Fig. 3). By shar德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a large number of simple tasks, it is possible to determ德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine whether a huge number of photographs show flood德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing or not. Re德赢ac米兰官方合作vwintegrat德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing the photos makes it possible to quickly identify which parts of the wider area were actually flooded.

For this drill, Dr. Morishima collaborated with many people on the crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing platform Crowd4U. Approximately 600 people from 11 countries participated 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the task. Participants 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwincluded volunteers registered under Crowd4U. “AI developed by crowd workers also participated as an 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwindependent crowd worker. The AI learned from people’s decisions and estimated the overall picture of the damage. With the cooperation from many people and AI, a detailed disaster map was completed 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin four hours,” he proudly expla德赢ac米兰官方合作vwined (Fig. 4).

德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the post-drill analysis, there were cases where AI correctly identified photographs that humans misidentified. Work efficiency and quality can be improved by allocat德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing tasks between AI and people accord德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to expertise. “Unlike develop德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing an AI system 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwindependently after a problem occurs, a crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing task can materialize about an hour after obta德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a satellite photo. Furthermore, with Cyborg Crowd, crowd worker labor can automatically be shifted to AI ‘workers’, so it is really suitable for disaster countermeasures that require 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinstant response.”

Achieve by Collect德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Small Labor Forces
德赢ac米兰官方合作vwincreased Work Opportunities for Everyone

Dr. Morishima's other goal for Cyborg Crowd is to create a place where everyone can work, particularly people who have had difficulty work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the conventional employment system. “People with hear德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing disabilities for example, can participate 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin onl德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine photo analysis. If you can do the work from home 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin just a short time, people who aren’t able to work full-time due to family circumstances would be able to work. By break德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing the workload down 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinto micro-tasks, I th德赢ac米兰官方合作vwink it will open up new avenues for those who don’t have a job or can’t work outside their home.”

Dr. Morishima’s team is also try德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to develop the concept where a large number of people will gradually provide labor to solve problems without hav德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to “work” 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin the traditional sense at all. One such attempt is to grasp the current state of ancient ru德赢ac米兰官方合作vwins us德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing tourists. The Angkor archaeological site 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin Cambodia, registered as a World Heritage Site, has been exposed to w德赢ac米兰官方合作vwind and ra德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin for many years and has deteriorated. Restoration projects are be德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing carried out with Japan’s cooperation. Efficient restoration requires an accurate understand德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing of the ru德赢ac米兰官方合作vwins’ state, but it would be too costly to send experts to 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinvestigate on a regular basis.

The research group took note of the many tourists visit德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing Cambodia. If travelers provided their photos of the ru德赢ac米兰官方合作vwins, the team could superimpose and reconstruct the images to understand the extent of damage. However, tourists are not tak德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing pictures for the purpose of research, so the shoot德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing time and conditions differ. “It's not easy to f德赢ac米兰官方合作vwind the same spot 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin a photo taken at different times and to track how the spot changed over time. A team of computer vision specialists helped out to locate the same spots with德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin various photos taken at different times, and superimposed damaged spots from across many photos. Now it is possible to grasp even a slight change of 4 millimeters caused by the deterioration of the ru德赢ac米兰官方合作vwins, "says Dr. Morishima (Fig. 5).

Furthermore, the team is also consider德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a mechanism that allows people to take part 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin “offl德赢ac米兰官方合作vwine” tasks, to create more work opportunities. This attempt is named “Task on the Floor” where a task is displayed on the floor of a university hallway (Fig. 6). “Crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin day-to-day liv德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing spaces, like plac德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing a tablet and present德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing tasks there, has been tried out before, but even if a passerby tries it once, it is difficult to get consistent cooperation out of them. 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin that respect, I thought that if a task was presented on the floor right 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin front of a person walk德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing down a hallway, more people would take 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinterest.” The team has so far experimented at four locations 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin three universities and many people did participate.

From these attempts, it seems like new ways to work could soon take form through the utilization of micro-tasks undertaken by both human crowds and AI. Still, there are issues that need to be considered: first among them, how to protect workers’ rights. Crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing is often criticized for pay德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing low wages 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin exchange for labor. Exploitative structures do not provide susta德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinable work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing environments.

“I want to create a system that allows employers and workers to work as equals by valu德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing workers’ perspectives. We need to discuss what k德赢ac米兰官方合作vwind of design is fair to fulfill ELSI (ethical, legal, and social implications). Our work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing styles have changed significantly due to Covid-19. I th德赢ac米兰官方合作vwink that it will be an opportunity to th德赢ac米兰官方合作vwink about new ways of work德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing that can make use of Cyborg Crowd,” reflected Dr. Morishima. At a tra德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing-camp style 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinternational conference 德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin 2019, he opened discussions among researchers to explore better ways forward for mach德赢ac米兰官方合作vwines and people, such as crowdsourc德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing, human-AI collaboration, and ELSI.

"The fun part of Cyborg Crowd is to complete a big project speedily by hav德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing humans and AI cooperate on micro-tasks.” says Dr. Morishima. The orig德赢ac米兰官方合作vwin for his ideas goes back to his youth. “When I was a student, I belonged to a cheerlead德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing team and a brass band. Maybe I'm do德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing this research because I want to relive the joy and excitement of accomplish德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing someth德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing together with my teammates,” he muses with enthusiasm. “When a problem arises, it would be great if we can solve it by br德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing together AI and the knowledge of people from around the world. We’re aim德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing to contribute to the world by nurtur德赢ac米兰官方合作vwing such a system.”

Orig德赢ac米兰官方合作vwinal article on JST News October 2020
Translated by the SSC Secretariat