Amazon defends a worker ‘cage’ patent that was recently unearthed

Amazon
warehouses are already highly automated.
Reuters

• A new research paper has highlighted an Amazon patent which
  shows how to transport warehouse workers inside a cage.
• The patent was granted in 2016 and the system has not been
  implemented, but the concept seems shocking, especially in the
  wider debate around how Amazon treats people who work in its
  warehouses.
• Amazon has clarified the system was never implemented and
  said the cage was designed for worker safety.
• Amazon workers paid to address the firm’s social media
  critics have also weighed in to defend the patent.

A patent filed in 2016 has come back to haunt Amazon just as it’s
under major pressure over the way it treats people who work in
its warehouses.

The original patent documents depict a cage designed to carry
employees around warehouses. The idea is that, as warehouses
become staffed up by robots whizzing around carrying out tasks,
it might be safer for humans to navigate these workspaces in an
enclosed box.

The patent, titled “System and Method
for transporting Personnel within an active Workspace,” was
unearthed in a recent paper by AI
ethics researchers Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler.

Their paper describes the design as “an extraordinary
illustration of worker alienation, a stark moment in the
relationship between humans and machines.”

According to the patent, the contraption is designed to safely
allow human workers into “protected areas.”

Here’s a drawing of the cage from the patent
filing:

Amazon’s
“System and Method for Transporting Personnel within an active
Workspace” design.
USPTO

Although the patent isn’t new, Crawford and Joler’s paper caused
shockwaves on social media after the drawings
were highlighted by a report in the Boston Herald. 

Amazon Senior Vice President of Operations Dave Clark reacted to
the furore on Twitter, saying that “even bad ideas get submitted
for patents.”

Business Insider has contacted Amazon to ask how its
robot-repellent vests work.

Amazon Fulfilment Center Ambassadors — warehouse workers who
tweet in a public relations capacity for the company — voiced
their support for Amazon as well.

One ambassador wrote: “The building where I work is very safe and
clean… I inquired about this cage thing and it is just one of
those patents that many companies have. They may use it though.

“The way I look at it is that the cage was developed for the
safety of the worker in mind. Besides this patent was from a few
years ago. Many of your large companies have strange patents out
there.”

Another ambassador tweeted: “Amazon does not want to put its
workers in cages, this patent will never be used as they found a
better way to get the job done. [Amazon operations boss] Dave
Clark himself put out a statement clearing it up!”

Big tech firms file what look like dystopian patents quite
regularly. In 2017, Amazon filed a patent that would allow

delivery drones to analyse customers’ homes with a view to
selling them more products. 

And some people on Twitter were untroubled by cage concept,
saying that being inside an enclosure when working with machinery
isn’t so unusual.

Recently Amazon has come under fire for its working conditions,
and an
undercover journalist reported workers were peeing in bottles to
avoid missing targets, although Amazon denied this.