With the public release of ChatGPT and Microsoft's $10-billion investment into OpenAI, artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly gaining mainstream acceptance. For enterprise networking professionals, this means there is a very real possibility that AI traffic will affect their networks in major ways, both positive and negative. As AI becomes a core feature in mission-critical software, how should network teams and networking professionals adjust to stay ahead of the trend? Andrew Coward, GM of Software Defined Networking at IBM, argues that the enterprise has already lost control of its networks. The shift to the cloud has left the traditional enterprise network stranded, and AI and automation are required if enterprises hope to regain control.

A Bloomberg report details how artificial intelligence systems employed by Amazon have hired and fired contract drivers. Called "Flex," Amazon uses AI to determine how many drivers are needed for deliveries. The app, installed on drivers' smartphones, measures whether they delivered packages on time and followed customers' special requests. If a driver misses the mark, they are subjected to an automatic firing. That's exactly what happened to Stephen Normandin, 63, an Army veteran who Flex recently fired.

Stephen Normandin spent almost four years racing around Phoenix delivering packages as a contract driver for Amazon.com Then one day, he received an automated email. The algorithms tracking him had decided he wasn't doing his job properly. The 63-year-old Army veteran was stunned. He'd been fired by a machine. Normandin says Amazon punished him for things beyond his control that prevented him from completing his deliveries, such as locked apartment complexes. He said he took the termination hard and, priding himself on a strong work ethic, recalled that during his military career he helped cook for 250,000 Vietnamese refugees at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.