People are horrified by an Amazon patent that puts workers in cages - but an Amazon exec said even 'bad ideas' get submitted

Reuters

Amazon warehouses are already highly automated.

• 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:

USPTO

Amazon's "System and Method for Transporting Personnel within an active Workspace" design.

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.