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Incident 111: Amazon Flex Drivers Allegedly Fired via Automated Employee Evaluations

Description: Amazon Flex's contract delivery drivers were dismissed using a minimally human-interfered automated employee performance evaluation based on indicators impacted by out-of-driver's-control factors and without having a chance to defend against or appeal the decision.

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Alleged: Amazon developed an AI system deployed by Amazon Flex, which harmed Amazon Flex employees and Amazon Flex drivers.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
111
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2015-09-25
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
GMF, MIT

GMF Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Known AI Goal Snippets

One or more snippets that justify the classification.
 

(Snippet Text: Contract drivers say algorithms terminate them by email—even when they have done nothing wrong.

, Related Classifications: Automatic Skill Assessment)

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

5.2. Loss of human agency and autonomy

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Human-Computer Interaction

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+4
Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’
Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’

Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’

bloomberg.com

Amazon is using algorithms with little human intervention to fire Flex workers

Amazon is using algorithms with little human intervention to fire Flex workers

arstechnica.com

Amazon Flex Fires Employees by Software Algorithm

Amazon Flex Fires Employees by Software Algorithm

olhardigital.com.br

War veteran fired from Amazon for automated email with no chance to defend himself

War veteran fired from Amazon for automated email with no chance to defend himself

explica.co

Amazon Is Using Algorithms And A.I. To Terminate Flex Drivers By E-mail

Amazon Is Using Algorithms And A.I. To Terminate Flex Drivers By E-mail

jalopnik.com

Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’
bloomberg.com · 2021

Contract drivers say algorithms terminate them by email—even when they have done nothing wrong.

Stephen Normandin spent almost four years racing around Phoenix delivering packages as a contract driver for Amazon.com Inc. Then one day, he re…

Amazon is using algorithms with little human intervention to fire Flex workers
arstechnica.com · 2021

Locked gates, inclement weather, and bad selfies—all reasons drivers report that they were fired by the bots that apparently run human resources for Amazon’s Flex delivery program.

Millions of independent contractors are at the whim of a sy…

Amazon Flex Fires Employees by Software Algorithm
olhardigital.com.br · 2021

Self-employed workers who provide services for Amazon Flex, in the United States, denounced possible layoffs made possible by software from artificial intelligence of the giant that supposedly make decisions for the Human Resources.

Second …

War veteran fired from Amazon for automated email with no chance to defend himself
explica.co · 2021

Algorithms rate Amazon employee performance and report layoffs via automated emails.

Amazon, the world’s largest retailer owned by Jeff Bezos, leave your HR operations to machines, using software not only to manage workers in their warehous…

Amazon Is Using Algorithms And A.I. To Terminate Flex Drivers By E-mail
jalopnik.com · 2021

A lengthy Bloomberg report says that Amazon Flex drivers are supervised, and often fired by algorithms and e-mails rather than human beings. If you’re not familiar with it, Amazon Flex is basically Postmates but for delivering Amazon packag…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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