Uber Workers Build AI Clone of Their CEO

“One of my team members told me that some teams have built a Dara AI, you know, so that they basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me,” Dara Khosrowshahi said on a recent installment of The Diary of a CEO podcast, per a report Tuesday (March 3) from Fast Company.

“You can imagine, like, you know, by the time something comes to me, there’s been a prep and a meeting of the slide deck has been beautifully honed,” he said. “So they have Dara AI to tune their prep.”

The report notes that while many workers are using AI for a variety of reasons, Dara AI is a reaction to a high-pressure work environment Khosrowshahi admits he has encouraged.

“We’re going to be really demanding,” he said of working at Uber. “If you’re not performing, we’re going to let you know—and if you don’t fix it, we’re going to push you out.”

During an earnings call in November, Khosrowshahi said that generative artificial intelligence (AI) now touches almost every part of the company’s platform as Uber is “embedding intelligence across Uber Technologies to enhance productivity, optimize our operations and deliver more personalized consumer experiences.”

In addition, Uber is applying AI to new work opportunities. For example, its multiple gigs programs lets drivers supplement their transportation income with tasks via Uber AI Solutions.

While Khosrowshahi seemed to applaud his AI doppelganger, other workers are less sanguine about the technology’s arrival at their jobs.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that about 32% of workers in the Labor Economy — defined here as people doing “labor-intensive, task-based or contingent work such as gig work, freelancing, contracting and hourly wage roles” — are worried that new technology might reduce the need for people in their positions. That’s in line with 31.8% of non-Labor Economy workers, who expressed the same concerns.

“When the question turns specifically to automation and robotics, 29.3% of Labor Economy workers say advances could reduce the need for the work they do, compared with 26.8% of non-Labor Economy workers, a modest but notable difference,” PYMNTS wrote recently.

“Where Labor Economy workers diverge more clearly is in lived experience. Roughly 33.6% say they have recently witnessed or heard about co-workers being laid off or freelancers in their field struggling, versus 28.5% of non-Labor Economy workers.”