经济学人The Economist学习（笔记词汇）Day5

重点词汇：
contrarian英 [kən’treərɪən] 美 n. 做法与一般大众想法相反的投资人（如买冷门股票）；（与其他人）持相反意见者

allocate英 ['æləkeɪt] 美 ['æləket] vt. 分配；拨出；使坐落于vi. 分配；指定

criteria英 [kraɪ’tɪərɪə] 美 [kraɪ’tɪrɪə] n. 标准，条件（criterion的复数

双语原文：
经济学人 | 人工智能 或许是工人们的福音(下)

人工智能(下)
(全文共383个词)

Turning to office life, AI can help with complex and fiddly tasks like managing supply chains, allocating desk space and keeping records of meetings.
谈到办公室生活，人工智能可以帮助完成复杂而繁琐的任务，例如管理供应链，分配办公桌空间以及保存会议记录等。

All this can free up time for people to work on more important strategic decisions.
所有这些都可以为人们腾出时间来做更重要的战略决策。

The authors also think that AI could help collaboration within companies.
报告的作者还认为人工智能有助于公司的内部协作。

One obvious example is the elimination of language barriers.
一个明显的例子是消除语言障碍。

Multinational companies may have employees who lack a common language; AI can handle translation in real time so that dialogue is easier.
跨国公司的员工可能缺乏共同语言；人工智能可以实时处理翻译，从而使对话更加容易。

And the report argues that AI can produce better decision-making by offering a contrarian opinion so that teams can avoid the danger of groupthink.
该报告认为，人工智能可以通过提供反向的意见，使团队避免陷入集体思维的危险，从而产生更好的决策。

A program could analyse e-mails and meeting transcripts and issue alerts when potentially false assumptions are being made (rather like the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale who notices that the Emperor has no clothes).
人工智能可以分析电子邮件和会议记录，并在可能做出错误假设时发出警告（就像安徒生童话里注意到皇帝没穿衣服的那个男孩）。

Or it can warn a team when it is getting distracted from the task in hand.
或者，当团队从手头的任务中分心时，它可以警告他们。

When a firm is starting a new project, AI can also suggest experts from other parts of the organisation who could contribute.
当一家公司开始一个新项目时，人工智能还可以给出建议——该组织其他部门的哪些专家可以做出贡献。

In recruitment, managers could set criteria for “cognitive diversity” (seeking people with different academic and cultural backgrounds) when conducting a job search and allow AI to suggest candidates.
在招聘过程中，管理者可以在进行求职时设定“认知多样性”（寻求具有不同学术和文化背景的人）的标准，并允许人工智能推荐候选人。

This could eliminate remaining hiring biases in favour of white males.
这样可以消除剩余的招聘偏见（以往的招聘都是有利于白人男性的）。

Helen Poitevin of Gartner, a research company, says that some firms are using AI to suggest training possibilities to existing workers, based on the career paths of similar staff, as an aid to their career development.
研究公司 Gartner 的 Helen Poitevin 表示，一些公司正在利用人工智能，根据类似员工的职业道路，为现有员工提供培训机会，以帮助他们的职业发展。

And programs are also being used to analyse individual employees’ feedback so that managers can be aware of specific areas where a lot of people are unhappy.
人工智能也被用来分析员工的反馈，这样管理者就能了解到哪些具体的部门有很多人不满意。
If they react in the right way, this should make workers’ lives better.
如果他们以正确的方式做出了反应，这将使工人们的生活更美好。

All of which is a useful corrective to some of the more alarming predictions about the potential effects of AI.
所有这些都是对人工智能潜在影响的一些更令人担忧的预测的纠正。

But as ever, it needs to be remembered that programs are only as good as the data they are given.
但与以往一样，需要记住的是，人工智能只有在获得数据的情况下才会表现出色。

If those who input the data have biases, they may show up in the suggestions that it generates.
如果输入数据的人有偏见，那么偏见可能会在数据产生的建议中出现。

As Ms Poitevin says, AI can help improve diversity in the workforce “if we want it to”.
正如 Poitevin 所说，“如果我们愿意”，人工智能可以帮助我们改善劳动力的多样性。

The best employers should be able to turn AI into a positive for workers.
最好的雇主应该能够把人工智能变成对员工有利的因素。