Johnny Chen

Under the background of the rapid development of platform economy and digital technology, do the new professional groups represented by selling riders face the risk of technical unemployment? This issue of "Investigation and Research" is based on interviews and investigations on the rider’s labor process, and at the same time, it organizes multi-perspective discussions in the industry and academia to explore more topics about the development of intelligent society.

According to the data of "China Sharing Economy Development Report 2021" released by the National Information Center, there will be about 84 million sharing economy service providers in China in 2020, with a year-on-year increase of about 7.7%. The sharing economic service providers here mainly include new employment forms such as take-away riders, online car drivers and couriers. At the beginning of 2023, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions released the results of the ninth national survey on the status of the workforce. The data shows that there are currently 84 million workers in the new employment form in China. The number of take-away riders reached 13 million, accounting for 15% of the total workers in the new employment form. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of take-away riders increased sharply. Take Meituan as an example. From 2020 to 2022, the number of riders increased from 4.7 million to 6.24 million, an increase of 32.8%.

The large-scale rise of workers with new employment forms is closely related to the prosperity and development of platform economy. The rapid development of platform economy is inseparable from the rapid progress of artificial intelligence technology. As the core driving force of the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence technology is setting off a global wave of science and technology, which not only becomes the strategic commanding height of scientific and technological competition between countries, but also profoundly changes all aspects of human social production and daily life. However, the wide application of artificial intelligence technology in the platform economy not only promotes the production progress and the convenience of life, but also causes people’s worries about the "skills removal" and "technical unemployment" caused by technological progress.

In July 2021, Meituan revealed at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that unmanned delivery vehicles will develop into large-scale applications in 3-5 years. UAV service is also expected to appear in more cities within 3-5 years. The rapid development of unmanned distribution inevitably makes people worry about "de-skilling" and being replaced. However, the relevant personnel of the US Mission also said that unmanned distribution and non-contact economy are an ecological concept. Only scale and normalization can solve the cost problem, and manpower is still needed before all the advantages of innovation and technological iteration appear, so a large number of unemployment is unlikely. This can’t completely eliminate people’s worries about "de-skill" and "technical unemployment" caused by technological progress. In view of the huge scale of take-away riders, automation, digitalization and unmanned are imperative, it is necessary for us to go back to the problem that worries us and re-understand the labor process of "de-skill" and take-away riders.

The Essence of "De-skilling" and Tacit Knowledge in Labor Process

The idea of "de-skilling" originated from American economist harry braverman. In his view, Taylor’s scientific management is to concentrate scattered handicraft knowledge on employers, and then distribute it to workers in the form of detailed instruction books. Braverman described it as "separation of concept and implementation". Therefore, the essence of "de-skill" is the separation of concept and execution, that is, the separation of hand and brain in work.

"De-skilling" means the degeneration of workers. With the mechanization and automation of industrial production process, especially the infinite subdivision of work, workers in specific positions have less and less skills to master, and then become part of the production line instead of a complete person. Workers no longer use their brains at work, but execute orders like parts or tools of machines. As a result, workers become more and more stupid.

Back to the labor process of the takeaway rider. A large number of studies at home and abroad have revealed the trend of artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms in strengthening platform supervision ability, reducing workers’ autonomy and "de-skill". As mentioned above, "de-skill" is essentially the separation of hands and brains at work, and the result is the degradation of workers’ cognitive ability; However, in actual observation, the performance of takeaway riders is not the case. One of the important reasons is that the rider’s "tacit knowledge" in his work is ignored.

"Tacit knowledge" means "we know more than what we can express and formulate". For a long time, the "tacit knowledge" of workers is hard to find, but it plays a huge role. The advantage of "tacit knowledge" is that it comes from a specific situation rather than a general situation, so it can judge the causes of specific problems in the labor process more quickly and directly and find solutions. This characteristic, which originates from a specific situation and is inseparable from human intuition and judgment, makes the rider’s labor process unable to be simplified into "rules, regulations and formulas" according to the requirements of scientific management. The process of using "tacit knowledge" is precisely the process of combining hands and brains. Therefore, food delivery will not make takeaway riders stupid, but will make them "gain certain growth": "It has not only changed the situation in my family, but also changed my life, and also changed my personality, making me a lot more mature and stable, and also become much stronger."

Simply put, the rider’s tacit knowledge in the process of food delivery is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the brain map, second, the situational experience and third, the communication skills.

The first is the "brain map". Most riders’ distribution route planning recommended by the external selling platform App has experienced a transition from full compliance to independent planning. At the beginning of food delivery, new riders will deliver food in strict accordance with the delivery route recommended by the takeaway platform App because they are unfamiliar with the food delivery process, area and time. But when they are familiar with it, they will deliver food according to the distribution route accumulated in their own minds, because they know how to plan the distribution route faster: "We started to deliver food according to the systematic planning, and after three months of familiarity, we followed the planned route in our brains."

Followed by "situational experience." Riders can make good judgments on specific situations because they repeatedly deal with people and things in the process of delivering food, which enables them to continuously accumulate various typical "situational experiences". This kind of experience, like the "brain map" and the "communication skills" mentioned later, can’t be clearly expressed, but they all play a key role: "We will encounter all kinds of problems in the process of delivering food. For example, if some merchants are slow to deliver food, you can take it from other homes first, or the customers are close. It is ok for me to deliver it to him in a few minutes and then come back to pick up his meals."

Finally, there is "communication skills". Riders need to practice superb communication skills, because one of the skills they use most in the process of food delivery is communication, such as communication with the front desk of merchants, communication with security guards at the entrance of supermarkets and communities, and communication with customers. Good communication can not only improve the efficiency of food delivery, but also get favorable service comments: "Because it is a service industry, it is better to communicate with guests. If you have a bad temper, it is easy to have language disputes with guests … If you don’t communicate well, you will definitely be complained. Communication in our business is more important than food delivery. "

Therefore, from the perspective of using "tacit knowledge" in the process of food delivery, that is, the combination of hand and brain is needed in the work, the delivery of take-away food is not "de-skilled". Good communication with merchants/security guards/customers, human brain planning of distribution routes, and "situational experience" needed in each link of meal taking/delivery all require takeaway riders to use their hands and brains and make good use of the "tacit knowledge" they have accumulated in their work. The cognitive ability of riders has not deteriorated at work, and they have not become "more and more stupid".

The factory that can’t go back and the desire of "complete workers"

During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress in 2022, Zhang Xinghai, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chairman of Xiaokang Group, said that in recent years, industries such as take-away, e-commerce and webcasting have attracted a large number of young people to find jobs; Express delivery and take-away industry "involution" to graduate students to compete; Young people are no longer willing to go to work in factories, which leads to the increasingly serious problem of hollowing out industrial workers. Zhang Xinghai suggested that the government, enterprises and all walks of life should make joint efforts to encourage young people to become industrial workers, so as to alleviate the difficulties in recruiting and employing workers in the manufacturing industry. However, the main reason why riders are unwilling to enter the factory and are willing to deliver takeout is that the delivery of takeout is not "unskilled" compared with factory workers, but requires them to use their hands and brains.

While there is a "blowout" of employment on various Internet platforms, the traditional manufacturing industry is indeed experiencing a "labor shortage". Cao Dewang, the founder of Fuyao Group, also expressed his feelings for this: "Nowadays, young people would rather send takeout than go to work in a factory. This is the current dilemma facing the manufacturing industry." In this regard, Professor Wen Xiaoyi of China Institute of Labor Relations pointed out: "In the past, young and middle-aged laborers who were active in factory production lines are constantly moving from offline to online, which has made great changes in China’s economic structure and situation. In the past, going to work in coastal factories was the first choice for countless young people to realize their urban dreams. Nowadays, sending express delivery and take-away in big cities is becoming a career priority. "

For the phenomenon that young people "prefer to take delivery rather than go to work in factories", most studies take the high salary return of the platform economy and the strict management of the manufacturing industry as the main reasons. Indeed, the income return of takeaway riders is no less than that of traditional manufacturing. It is reported that most workers in factories in coastal areas earn 4,000-8,000 yuan a month. In contrast, riders can get 7000-8000 yuan per month, and many people can even exceed 10,000 yuan. More importantly, although it is equally hard, being a takeaway rider is rarely controlled, more free, and can also take time off: "The factory is too strict and has no rest. Except for legal holidays, the state can’t deduct (punish) it, so I will give you a day off. It’s more than 6 thousand yuan a month, which is similar to here. But in comparison, it is free here. "

The "local workers" described by Marx may be the original prototype of "de-skill", that is, "workers who have been engaged in the same simple operation all their lives turn their whole bodies into automatic one-sided organs of this operation". The production line invented by Henry Ford shows more intuitively that modern factories no longer need the "whole body" of workers, but "one-sided organs". The design principle of the assembly line invented by Ford is to "arrange tools and people according to working procedures so as to complete the assembly of spare parts in the shortest possible time". Obviously, people are reduced to tool-like existence on the assembly line. Therefore, the workers on the assembly line will inevitably encounter the problem of hand-brain separation and the cognitive degradation caused by it.

However, Marx also pointed out that "conscious life activities directly distinguish people from animal life activities" when distinguishing people from animals. The difference between people and animals lies in that people can engage in free and conscious conscious activities, and the difference between people and tools lies in that people have valuable cognitive and creative abilities. Therefore, people are more willing to take delivery than those jobs that make people stupid on the assembly line, precisely because people naturally want to use their hands and brains at work. Because of the existence of "tacit knowledge", delivery can make riders feel that they are "complete workers" rather than "one-sided organs" than entering the factory. This may also be the reason why riders feel "freedom" at work.

Although the take-away rider does not really face the dilemma of "de-skill", it is undeniable that the rider engaged in take-away distribution may not have high academic qualifications and high skills. According to the results of the ninth survey on the status of the national workforce released by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the academic qualifications of couriers and take-away distributors are concentrated in high school and below. It is not difficult to find out from the employment report of Meituan riders during the epidemic period released by Meituan that the ranking of riders’ sources from high to low is factory workers, salespeople, entrepreneurs or self-employed small businesses or catering industry employees. Among them, factory workers, salespeople, and catering employees may also be low-skilled workers. How to let more people accumulate "tacit knowledge" in their work, show free and conscious labor and realize the coordinated development of man and machine is the key issue in the era of artificial intelligence.

(The author is an associate professor at the School of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University)

China Social Sciences Journal, August 24, 2023.

　　Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, July 2 (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a study published in the British journal Nature Communication on the 2nd, the American research team reported a new breakthrough in combination therapy: after using a drug delivery system to continuously release antiviral drugs and treating based on the gene editing technology known as "gene magic scissors", the virus was not detected in a subgroup of mice infected with HIV.

　　A total of 13 mice were treated in two separate trials, and 5 of them showed no signs of HIV infection for up to 5 weeks after treatment. In contrast, it is easy to detect HIV in mice that have received one of these treatments alone.

　　HIV is a virus that causes defects in human immune system. HIV directly invades the human immune system, destroying cellular immunity and humoral immunity, which not only makes it difficult for the human immune system to resist invasion, but also brings difficulties to the development of specific therapeutic drugs and preventive vaccines. At present, patients infected with HIV mainly rely on various antiviral drugs for treatment. However, this therapy can’t cure the patient, and it requires lifelong medication.

　　In view of this, the Lewis Katz School of Medicine of Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center team developed a combination therapy to target HIV in a group of infected mice. The therapy relies on an antiviral drug formula and CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The former will slowly release the drug and inhibit the virus activity for many days, while the latter will eliminate the virus genetic code in infected cells by cutting off the relevant DNA fragments.

　　After continuous treatment, nearly one-third of the mice did not reach the detectable level of HIV. The research team used a large number of different techniques to study mice and found that HIV was not detected in infected cells and tissue sites of these mice within 5 weeks after receiving treatment.

　　At present, the results of mouse experiments are considered promising, and researchers plan to carry out further research immediately to improve drug delivery against viruses and specifically eliminate latent viral infections.

　　Chief editor circle

　　Curing AIDS was a difficult problem without rules 10 years ago. Now, with the simplification of genetic engineering technology, many promising ideas have emerged. For example, defects caused by microorganisms are corrected with tools given by another microorganism. Although CRISPR has been popular for many years, the corresponding gene editing therapy that can be used in clinic is still in its infancy. The progress made in the field of AIDS has made people more confident in this simple technology with great potential.