Why does AI lead to gamification?
Here’s a thing. They put new elevators in my office. Some of us remember a time when you pushed a button and the elevator came, then you got in and pushed a button and it went to that floor.
Not these elevators. These elevators have AI (and by AI I mean some kind of algorithm, which is how the term is being used these days). There’s an iPad on the wall, and you press for the floor you want and the elevators somehow ‘optimise’ so that it gets the most people to their floors with the least amount of effort.
But the upshot is, you often find yourself packed into an elevator which is going to all the floors, whilst the other 5 stand idle.
And the other day someone said to me ‘some people figured out that if you press the floor multiple times, the elevator thinks lots of people are going to that floor, and you get there quicker’. Ha! The game is on!
So here’s a question: what do you think introducing algorithms into the human resources space will do? Algorithms for recruitment... algorithms for promotion... algorithms for performance?
Every time you do this, you gamify the environment – i.e. you create a competition between people and machines, where the people try to stay one step ahead of the machines by ‘gaming’ the system. A familiar example is search engine optimisation, where websites rank sites based on algorithms and marketeers continually try to outsmart the algorithms.
There is an inevitability to this relationship – and one we ignore at our peril. Introduce AI into the recruitment process, and all of a sudden you have a business opportunity for companies that have figured out how to game the process, and will offer you improved job prospects at a mere £12.99 per month. Maybe this is why Google still insist on interviewing people, face-to-face.
As we rush to introduce AI, we rush to gamify the workplace. And we might want to stop and think about what this does to our sense of purpose.
Narrative Game Designer
5yI simply can’t resist sharing the old sketch about voice recognition in a “Scottish Elevator” https://youtu.be/NMS2VnDveP8
Helping us all "Figure It Out" (Explore, Describe, Explain), many Differentiations + Integrations at any time .
5yto flip it, it isn’t really “why does AI lead to gamification?” because AI is already our attempt to game intelligence . just the normal notions of “gaming the system”, essentially “learning” is also an attempt to “game the system”, etc ... just as well, curation of machine learning training data and models and algos all games the system, albeit more elaborately and complex . so another question to ask, “why does human need to game the universe lead to everything?” (AI included of course)
Advisor, consultant, writer, & speaker. Focused on working smarter, individually & collectively. AI-free
6yWork is already a game. A whole industry of SEO was created to game the Google algorithms. Plus ça change ...
Managing Director at Adeva Partners
6yYou might create a gap between people who have played the game and those who haven't. If like me you work outside of London with vintage style lifts, those lifts in Canary Wharf are terrifying and you never play enough to learn by experience.
Managing Director at Ergo Ike Ltd (home of Phil-e-Slide range of products)
6yI think this is appropriate in this conversation.https://aeon.co/essays/how-employers-have-gamified-work-for-maximum-profit?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c80732acc1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_10_08_05_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-c80732acc1-70415725