EP 0627 September 202680 minLIVECONVERSATION
Your Boss Is an Algorithm
Since dynamic pricing arrived, Uber takes more from every trip while drivers earn less, and nobody outside the company can see how the numbers are set.
EP 06: Your Boss Is an Algorithm
Insights
- 01
Uber drivers are not allowed to ask passengers what they paid, so neither side can see the split.
0:00 - 02
Since dynamic pricing arrived, Uber takes more from every trip while drivers earn less: the finding from 1.5 million trips.
8:01 - 03
The "human in the loophole": the person kept in the process to absorb the blame for an algorithm's decision.
3:55 - 04
The Kentucky bail algorithm that judges followed more often for Black defendants.
43:52 - 05
The study where an AI boss cut pay by 40% and nobody complained.
53:17 - 06
Why pricing algorithms can collude in ways that would be illegal for two human bosses.
55:01 - 07
Why Reuben says the only way to fight back is to join a union.
49:29
About this episode
Reuben explains why Uber bans drivers from asking passengers what they paid, how the algorithm learned to pay less for hospital trips and "punishes drivers for being good human beings", why pricing algorithms can quietly collude in ways that would be illegal for two human bosses, the "human in the loophole" who exists to absorb the blame, the Kentucky bail algorithm that judges followed more often for Black defendants, the study where an AI boss cut pay by 40% and nobody complained, and why he says the only way to fight back is to join a union.
Dr Reuben Binns led the Oxford team that analysed 1.5 million Uber trips. His finding: since dynamic pricing arrived, Uber takes more from every trip while drivers earn less, and nobody outside the company can see how the numbers are set.
The guest
Reuben Binns
Associate Professor, University of Oxford
Dr Reuben Binns is an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford and a former AI research fellow at the UK's data regulator, the ICO.
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