WHEN ALGORITHMS DELEGATE TO HUMANS: EXPLORING HUMAN-ALGORITHM INTERACTION AT UBER1

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stelmaszak, Marta; Mohlmann, Mareike; Sorensen, Carsten
• 署名单位: University of Massachusetts System; University of Massachusetts Amherst; Bentley University; Copenhagen Business School
• 刊物名称: MIS QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0276-7783
• DOI: 10.25300/MISQ/2024/17911
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 305-330
• 关键词: systems; technologies

摘要

Algorithms are increasingly seen as capable of autonomously initiating and managing interactions with humans-for example, through delegating the rights and responsibilities for successful outcomes of shared tasks without human intervention. While research into such interactions primarily focuses on dyadic configurations, complex settings where multiple agents work together have become a nexus of more nuanced interactions that go beyond the dyad. This paper explores such interactions through the lens of delegation by investigating how many algorithms delegate to many humans in a multi-agent setting. Analyzing patent data and interviews with drivers and passengers, we unpack delegation in the context of the ride-hailing application Uber. We theorize distributed delegation as a construct capturing collective hybrid appraisal, collective hybrid distribution, and collective hybrid coordination, in which a collective of algorithms delegates by drawing on inputs from multiple human agents. Our findings highlight that distributed delegation is collective, hybrid, and relational by nature, and demonstrate the extent to which human inputs are necessary for collectives of algorithms to exercise the capacity to delegate. Distributed delegation as a continuum of algorithmic and human involvement poses a challenge for recent theories suggesting the unprecedented autonomy of algorithms from humans.