According to MIT Technology Review, companies are increasingly anthropomorphizing AI tools by giving them human names and referring to them as “coworkers” or employees. The publication describes a hypothetical scenario where workers arrive at their jobs to find that “a new underling will report to you,” with the company calling this AI tool by a human name like “Alex.”
The story, which originally appeared in The Algorithm, MIT Technology Review’s weekly newsletter on AI, challenges this framing of AI tools in workplace settings. The publication questions whether characterizing AI agents as colleagues or subordinates is an appropriate way to conceptualize these technologies. However, the brief excerpt does not detail the specific concerns or arguments the full article presents regarding this practice.
The piece reflects broader conversations in the tech industry about how companies position AI tools within organizational structures and whether humanizing these systems through naming conventions and workplace terminology is beneficial or potentially misleading for employees who interact with them.