What is Mechanical Turk?

The Information Age has provided literally hundreds of ways to make part-time money. Practically everything is for sale these days, including of course, information. Enter the stage, MechanicalTurk. But what exactly is Mechanical Turk? In this instance, the term “Turk” is derived from the development of a man-made mechanical chess machine designed in 1769, by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen. The machine was created as a life-sized wooden mannequin, which was adorned with a robe and turban (thus the “Turk” description). The machine was successful in defeating many skilled chess opponents. In order to convince the public that this was indeed a machine capable of defeating its opposing players, a complicated set of levers and gears were placed on the inside of the machine. However, the secret to this undefeated “Turk” was actually a human chess master very cunningly concealed on the inside of this large machine, behind the phony mechanics.

In effect, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk utilizes the same concept. Since human beings are better adept at solving more complicated, rational problems than computers, Amazon.com introduced an interface system which allows human beings to perform simple online “tasks” which computers are not fully equipped to complete. Software developers utilize what is described as “artificial artificial intelligence” in order to obtain information to use in their software. In the Amazon Mechanical Turk environment, these developers are known as Requesters—and the users completing the tasks, Workers. So what does this mean for the average consumer? First and foremost, all Workers completing tasks must have an active Amazon account. This is so that all payments can be streamlined through Amazon’s secure identity and payment structure. Payments are made either by direct deposit into the user’s personal bank account, or into his/her Amazon account (for the purpose of paying for future Amazon purchases).