• ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    10 months ago

    Read the first paragraphs of the article (till the paywall), still have no clue what a “turk” is.

    Maybe I’m just dense.

    • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      10 months ago

      Amazon Mechanical Turk is a service where people can do simple tasks for small amounts of money. Usually things you would expect to be automated, especially in this day and age. I did it for a bit about a decade or so ago. Things like small amounts of proofreading, transcription, etc.

      The name is a reference to a hoax device made in the late 1700s that was supposedly a chess playing automaton. In actuality it was operated by a person hiding within. It was nicknamed the Mechanical Turk because it had a model of the head and torso of a person dressed in Ottoman robes, etc.