An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: McDonald’s is to replace human servers with voice-based technology in its U.S. drive-throughs. The fast-food chain hopes the AI technology will make the ordering process more efficient. McDonald’s is implementing the technology with the help of start-up Apprente, which it acquired this week. The move comes amid concern about workers whose jobs…
Tag: workers
California Bill Makes App-Based Companies Treat Workers as Employees
California legislators approved a landmark bill on Tuesday that requires companies like Uber and Lyft to treat contract workers as employees, a move that could reshape the gig economy and that adds fuel to a yearslong debate over whether the nature of work has become too insecure. From a report: The bill passed in a 29 to 11 vote in the…
Amazon Employees Are Walking Out Over the Company’s Huge Carbon Footprint
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: With less than two weeks until the global climate strikes, 930 tech and corporate Amazon employees have pledged to walk out of the company’s offices on September 20, demanding zero emissions by 2030. The climate action, which follows strikes at Amazon warehouses, most recently on Amazon Prime Day, marks the first time white…
Dozens of Google Employees Say They Were Retaliated Against For Reporting Harassment
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last November, Google made a promise to do better. More than 20,000 employees around the world had walked out of the company’s offices to protest that Google had paid out over $100 million to multiple executives accused of sexual harassment in the workplace. In response, the tech giant apologized and said it would overhaul its…
Police Shut Down 3,000-Person Game of Hide-and-Seek At IKEA
An IKEA hide-and-seek game with 3,000 people was scheduled to take place in Glasglow, Scotland on Saturday, August 31, but police managed to put a stop to it before it even got started. From a report: The one-stop shop for everything home-related and also the ideal place for a 3,000-person hide-and-seek game. After all, the average store is about 300,000 square…
Women have a daily hormone cycle as well as a monthly one
Female hormones like oestrogen and FSH have daily ebbs and flows that may explain mood variations and why some female shift-workers struggle to get pregnant Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2215596-women-have-a-daily-hormone-cycle-as-well-as-a-monthly-one/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
The Big Levandowski: Could an Uber Engineer’s Indictment Discourage Workers From Changing Jobs?
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: For nearly 20 years,” writes WIRED’s Alex Davies in How Anthony Levandowski Put Himself at the Center of an Industry, “the French-American Levandowski has played a kind of purposeful Forrest Gump for the world of autonomous driving. Rather than stumbling into the center of one momentous event after another, Levandowski has put himself there. And he…
Google Contractors In Pittsburgh Are Unionizing With a Steel Workers Union
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Contract workers at Google’s office in Pittsburgh have just announced their intention to unionize. 66 percent of the eligible contractors at a company called HCL America Inc., signed cards seeking union representation, according to the United Steel Workers union. With the help of the Pittsburgh Association of Technical Professions (PATP), they’re asking the…
Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot ‘It’
As a new generation grows up surrounded by AI, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots’ role. From a report: Today’s small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a booming education-tech industry can speed children’s learning, but they also can be…