The Binary Instinct: Neither Automated Nor Manual

All courses / Landscape / Module 2 / Chapter 6

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Explain why the autonomy level belongs to an action in a context and not to a product.
• Interpret the survey figures on use, trust and automated management, stating what each survey did not ask.
• Draft a table of action classes and levels for one AI use, in the form of a decision-rights view row.
• Identify where a legal binary, such as Article 22 of the GDPR, remains the question.

Key concepts

The binary instinct

The habit of seeing two states where the data show a scale: automated or manual, human or machine, in the loop or out of it. It is a cousin of the habit Rosling named the gap instinct, applied to work.

Level per action class

The same system can hold Level 1 for one action and Level 3 for another. AI Red Team sets the level per action from its reversibility, blast radius, confidence in the system, exposure to attacker-controlled input and the decision tier.

The line between Level 2 and Level 3

The line that matters is between Level 2 Supervised and Level 3 Bounded, because above it a class of actions happens without a person approving each one. It is the difference between approving each action and having approved a playbook.

A gradient of automated management

In the AIM-WORK survey, 24 per cent of EU workers reported rosters and 21 per cent tasks allocated automatically, while 5 per cent had the speed of their work set automatically. The forms that arrange work are reported far more often than those that press on a person directly.

Rule of thumb: which level, which action

Ask at which level, for which action: automated is five answers, not one. Apply it whenever a sentence contains automated, autonomous, manual or human in the loop.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. Close to half of the developers who answered used AI tools daily while about 3 per cent highly trusted the output. The author reads this as Level 1 Assisted seen from the inside and calls it an interpretation. What other readings fit the same two panels?
2. Neither survey of automated management asked who could override an allocation. What would you need to ask the workers or the employer to place task allocation at a level?
3. A system described as having a human in the loop may be Level 2 with approvals given in seconds. Which measurements would show your organisation that approval had become a reflex?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. In Hansa Mutual's decision-rights view, at which level does the SOC investigation agent HM-SOC hold the action of wiping a host, and why?

   1. Level 3 Bounded, because the playbook lists it as a pre-approved action
   2. Level 4 Autonomous, because it changes nothing outside the case record
   3. Level 2 Supervised, because an analyst approves each wipe before it runs
   4. Level 0 Advisory, because a wiped host is hard to reverse, so the agent proposes and a person does it
   Show the answer

   D. Level 0 Advisory, because a wiped host is hard to reverse, so the agent proposes and a person does it
   Wiping a host stops at Level 0 Advisory: the agent may propose it and a person does it, because a wiped host is hard to reverse. Enriching an alert runs to Level 4, and isolating a workstation and revoking a session to Level 3.

2. Which two forms of automated management did EU workers report most often in the AIM-WORK survey?

   1. Automated instructions and the speed of work set automatically
   2. Rosters or shift hours allocated automatically, and work tasks allocated automatically
   3. Ranking on a leaderboard and points or prizes for performance
   4. Shifts that could be cancelled on a low rating, and work allocated on the basis of customer ratings
   Show the answer

   B. Rosters or shift hours allocated automatically, and work tasks allocated automatically
   Rosters or shift hours allocated automatically were reported by 24 per cent of EU workers and work tasks by 21 per cent. After them the shares fall away, down to 5 per cent for pace and 4 per cent for allocation by customer ratings.

3. What does the chapter say the EU27 rows of the Stack Overflow survey figure are?

   1. A filter on a self-selected, unweighted sample, not a representative European figure
   2. A probability sample of developers in the 27 member states
   3. An official statistic that Eurostat computes from the survey
   4. A weighted estimate for all ICT specialists employed in the EU, computed from the survey's country shares
   Show the answer

   A. A filter on a self-selected, unweighted sample, not a representative European figure
   The sample is self-selected and unweighted, and the EU27 rows are a filter on it. The chapter says they are not a representative European figure.