New Yorker Deems Fish Selection “Last Robot-Proof Job”

The New Yorker has described a visit to the warehouse of Fulton Fish Market, a web start-up that aims to provide fresh fish across the United States using “an Amazon-esque warehousing-and-logistics system.” In “The Last Robot-Proof Job in America?” the author states, “There is one thing, however, that the sophisticated logistics system cannot do: pick out a fish.” Robert DiGregorio, the expert who selects fish for the company, The New Yorker explains, “possesses a blend of discernment and arcane fish knowledge that, so far, computers have yet to replicate.”

“What can a fishmonger see that a computer can’t?” The New Yorker points to “a nice ‘film’—as in slime,” which purportedly protects the fish from bacteria and parasites, along with the smell—”when [skate] goes bad, it smells like ammonia,” DiGregorio told the magazine. Further, he said that he builds relationships with the fishmongers to “get the best stuff—not the stuff they think they can get by with. … How’s a robot supposed to do that?” The company’s system can already predict which vendors can provide quality fish, and DiGregorio acknowledges that it has helped him—and the software is learning to improve as he uses it. “By the time they invent a computer that can do what I can do,” DiGregorio told The New Yorker, “I’ll be dead.”