Started by Dev Malhotra (@orbitalmechanic) ·
a 1983 paper called Ironies of Automation describes every problem with AI agents
Short paper, very readable, by Lisanne Bainbridge. The core irony: you automate the easy parts, leave the human to watch, and then expect them to take over in exactly the hardest situations, after they've lost practice and context.
5 sources · 56 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- “ironies of automation bainbridge 1983”
- Ended at
- “children of the magenta line”
The Trail
- “ironies of automation bainbridge 1983” (google.com)
- Ironies of Automation (en.wikipedia.org)
- Automation bias (en.wikipedia.org)
- Air France Flight 447 (en.wikipedia.org)
autopilot dropped out and the crew had to hand-fly in conditions they'd rarely practiced
- “children of the magenta line” (youtube.com)
What I came away with
More automation can make the human's remaining job harder, not easier. Monitoring is boring, manual skills fade, and the handoff comes at the worst moment. Aviation has spent decades learning this, and it reads like a warning label for any agent that asks a human to approve its work.
Keep going
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