Does it matter if your boss is an algorithm?

There are some people who are worried about we may be ruled by computer algorithms in the near future. They complain about how machines start to rule our lives and work. Such life has already started. In the trading market, computer algorithms start to play the role of traders. In the market research area, firms collect the data and run algorithms to analyze the data and use the result for their future product investment. In the daily life, people who go online frequently are analyzed by the companies like Google, they have been delivered with the results that the Google search engine, which is an algorithm, thinks are best suit you. There are countless examples of how computer algorithms "rule" our lives. Because it happens everywhere in our lives, it seems a bit scaring; moreover, some people's benefits have been hurt by such an environment.

Some workers complain because of the apps invented like Uber, Deliveroo, Dididache, their incomes have fallen significantly. Moreover, once these apps become more popular, the workers who work via these apps will receive lower payments from working for these apps, as the number of workers increases and the competition increases, so the income will decrease. Moreover, some people hate the feeling of being ruled by algorithms. However, people may need to start to get used to such working under such environment. When we look at how our working environment changes over time, we can see that we had a period of only using machines as tools, then currently some of us work along with machines as partners, it is not surprising if one day the machines become the boss of some of us. Each stage has an improvement of productivity and faces criticisms. In the past, the Japanese first brought sewing machines into their country, some people feared the sound of the machines could damage their souls. Later, when people work along with machines, some people now still believe we are losing the craftsmanship and people's intelligence and ability are always better than the capability of the machines.

Having an algorithm as a boss has its unique benefit. It never makes a biased decision, if the designer of the algorithm is unbiased. So having an algorithm as your boss, you do not need to worry about racism, sexism or etc. In addition, the speed of making decisions is much faster. Maybe people are more flexible when making their decisions and could do better when facing some complex issues. However, computers can run algorithms to solve many simple issues, and that speed is impossible to be achieved by a human being.

I think that maybe you dislike having a robot boss, but in some industries, which work on repeated matters and has limited requirement of innovation and invention,  it is very likely for you to have a robot boss.