悄然接近的人工智能

Walmart will soon deploy 360 robot janitors across a few hundred of its stores. Using maps plotted by human employees, the AI-powered cleaners will placidly traverse the aisles, sweeping and buffing as they go—just as blue-aproned human employees used to do (and still will, in Walmart stores without an Auto-C, as the robots are called).

沃爾瑪將為其少數(shù)百家門店配置共360臺(tái)清潔機(jī)器人。在工作人員輸入地圖后這些AI清潔工就可以自在穿梭在貨架之間，留下干凈、拋過光的地面。這些機(jī)器人名叫Auto-C，所做工作與其余門店的人類雇員別無(wú)二致。

Perhaps the most striking thing about these robot workers is how not-striking they are. Sci-fi movies suggest a future full of humanoid robots who unnerve us with their “uncanny valley” qualities. Now the future is coming into view, and it looks like a giant Roomba. It’s easy to imagine walking absentmindedly past an Auto-C on a shopping trip without even registering its presence.

也許最值得注意的事情正是這些機(jī)器人的存在實(shí)在太自然?？苹秒娪八茉炝艘粋€(gè)充滿仿生人的未來，在那里機(jī)器人們是行走的“恐怖谷”，四處驚起雞皮疙瘩(小編注：恐怖谷理論認(rèn)為機(jī)器人的擬人程度到了特定范圍會(huì)讓人反感恐懼)現(xiàn)在這個(gè)未來到來了，只不過這個(gè)機(jī)器人看起來就是高配掃地狗，逛超市路過它甚至不會(huì)多看幾眼。

BRAIN CORPAI has already started to become a part of our everyday landscape. In New Jersey this week, dozens of workers were hospitalized after a robot at an Amazon fulfillment center accidentally punctured a can of bear repellent and enveloped workers in eye- and lung-searing fumes. Days earlier in California, an auto-piloted Tesla drove an allegedly drunk, sleeping “driver” down a highway, right alongside more more alert travelers no doubt alarmed by the scene in the next lane. (Highway patrol officers figured out on the spot how to stop the automated car.)

有關(guān)AI的新聞在當(dāng)今絕非是空谷足音。本周在美國(guó)新澤西亞馬遜倉(cāng)庫(kù)，幾十名工人因機(jī)器人意外刺破了一個(gè)內(nèi)含驅(qū)逐狗熊用辣椒素的罐子而眼部肺部灼傷。幾天前在加州，一輛具有自動(dòng)駕駛功能的特斯拉載著據(jù)說是已經(jīng)喝醉睡著的司機(jī)在高速上狂奔，對(duì)其余車道的過往車輛無(wú)疑造成威脅，交警不得不當(dāng)場(chǎng)摸索逼停涉事車輛的方法。

Of course, industrial accidents and drunk drivers existed well before AI. Tools with the power to alleviate the burden of physical labor—horses, threshing machines, self-driving cars—also come with the power to injure. And the presence of AI-powered machines just steps away from us is, for now, still a rarity for most people.

當(dāng)然了，早在AI之前就有各類工業(yè)事故和酒駕;解放生產(chǎn)力的工具如馬、脫粒機(jī)、自動(dòng)駕駛，往往也帶來新的危險(xiǎn)。對(duì)更多人來說，事實(shí)上近在咫尺的AI依然觸不可及。

But the incremental nature of robots’ creep into our daily lives will make it harder to recognize—or object to—the bigger changes they bring later. Walmart insists that the robot janitors will give employees more time for customer service and other tasks. Critics point out that they could just as easily become an excuse to reduce staff and wages. And if customers get used to ignoring robot workers, they may be even less cognizant of the needs of the human ones.

機(jī)器人溫水煮青蛙般的滲透，會(huì)讓我們更難察覺到時(shí)代的巨變，更別提抵制了。沃爾瑪堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為機(jī)器人清潔工會(huì)解放雇員以便更好地服務(wù)顧客。而有人說這一切都是下一步裁員減薪的陰謀，還有人說消費(fèi)者在習(xí)慣機(jī)器人員工之后在面對(duì)人類員工時(shí)可能會(huì)不近人情。