AIDA

AI-venture: Artificial Intelligence (AI), with its most recent developments, has already brought numerous advantages in front of issues the global economy is fighting: ageing populations in advanced economies and low productivity in developing economies. From job displacement, to rising inequality and occupational health, AI appears to be menacing the stability of many jobs. How can…

Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA)

By Matthieu Chiagano (IT)

AI-venture: Artificial Intelligence (AI), with its most recent developments, has already brought numerous advantages in front of issues the global economy is fighting: ageing populations in advanced economies and low productivity in developing economies. From job displacement, to rising inequality and occupational health, AI appears to be menacing the stability of many jobs. How can the EU ensure the stability of its labour market and of its workforce, while also making the most out of what can be better achieved with technologically advanced instruments?

“Can AI Art Generators Truly Transform the World of Art?”, AI generated image

Topic in a nutshell

In today’s rapidly developing global landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made its own way into the workplace. AI is now presenting itself as a beacon of light in the fight against today’s biggest battles the global economy is facing. Four in five workers stated that AI has improved their performance at work. The fields in which the implementation of AI has brought advantages are numerous: namely, AI is increasing efficiency and productivity, helping in predicting demand1 and automating operations in retail shops or making smart electrical grids smarter. However, alongside these multiple advantages humanity is experiencing, many challenges need to be faced: job displacement, widening inequality, and concerns over occupational health and stability. 

Humanity has already faced the advent of technology in the workplace, however in the past it has mainly affected traditional assembly line jobs, manufacturers, factory workers and such. Today AI is menacing high-skilled jobs2. As a result, advanced economies face greater risks from AI, but also more opportunities to benefit from, compared with emerging markets and developing economies.

AI is expected to have an impact on almost 40% of the jobs all over the world, mostly exposed to automation: we’re talking about software engineers, artists, data analysts, journalists and workers in the legal industry. It is our duty to make that impact as profitable, as meaningful and as positive as possible, to make sure that no global advantage comes at the expense of individuals.

Key terms

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computer systems capable of performing complex tasks that historically only a human could do, such as reasoning, making decisions, or solving problems.

Trustworthy AI: According to the European Commission’s Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, trustworthy AI has three components: 

  • it should be lawful, complying with all applicable laws and regulations;
  • it should be ethical, ensuring adherence to ethical principles and values; 
  • it should be robust, both from a technical and social perspective3.

Automated decision making: An automated process that provides decisions independently without the mediation of a human, through the use of statistics, collected data and patterns. Such systems can be used in both algorithmic management and workforce surveillance. However, AI-based decisions can face a significant lack of transparency and clarity, as well as a greater degree of algorithm aversion, that is the reluctance of workers to follow algorithms. 

  • Algorithmic management: tracking, evaluating, and managing of workers through the use of algorithms. These systems are widely used by companies such as food delivery companies to manage their workforce. 

Job displacement: Involuntary job loss due to economic factors such as economic downturns or structural change. It is an issue workers face as AI starts to take their places. Besides the obvious consequence, that is the loss of jobs, issues can still arise in the long term, as skills lose their value, widely affecting the workers’ ability to find new jobs after facing the loss of their previous one. 

Stakeholders and measures in place

You can access the Stakeholders on this Lucidchart 

Stakeholder: The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union, responsible for implementing and enforcing EU policies and laws. The Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), responsible for the development and implementation of policies regarding the EU in the digital age,  hosts today a new regulator, the European AI Office, responsible for supporting the development and use of trustworthy AI, while protecting the citizens of the EU against the risks of AI. 

Actions taken: The AI Act is the first-ever legal framework on AI, regulating the position the European Union holds towards AI development, implementation, and integration. It classifies different AI systems according to the level of threat they pose. Among the highest, are those AIs related to employment, algorithmic management of workers and access to self-employment. Furthermore, the EC appointed a high-level expert group on artificial intelligence, whose responsibility is to provide advice on its artificial intelligence strategy. It produced the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, that define the requirements all trustworthy AIs should meet. Finally, the Digital Europe Programme was created, with the aim of bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations.

Stakeholder: International Organisations, such as The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), participate in the international dialogue for the development of AI and its relative policies, promoting globally shared values such as equality, safety, non-discrimination and dignity. In particular, the OECD is an international organisation that interacts with governments, policy makers and citizens to establish evidence-based international standards and find solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges, including the impact of AI on the labour market. 

Actions taken: The creation of the OECD AI Policy Observatory (OECD.AI), provides multidisciplinary, evidence-based policy analysis and data on AI’s areas of impact. Furthermore, through the promotion of the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence, the first set of intergovernmental policy guidelines on Artificial Intelligence adopted today by 42 countries, it upholds internationally recognised values to be adopted in the development of fair and trustworthy AIs.  

Stakeholder: The corporate sector is the part of a country’s economic activity that is made up by companies. The main objective of such businesses’ operations is the production of goods or services for the market, which may be a source of profit or other financial gain. In that sense, the corporate sector plays an important role in influencing policy-makers, advocating for supportive policies and modernising the global market, while at the same time facing the risks of AI implementation in the workplace.

Actions taken: the corporate sector as a whole has been acting to make its voice heard in the field of AI. Companies are participating in conferences such as Driving corporate action towards responsible and ethical artificial intelligence as a means to gather ideas, share experiences, and act as a unitary actor to achieve common goals and reach important milestones through both self-advocacy and self-empowerment.

Stakeholder: Labour Unions advocate for the rights and interests of workers affected by AI-driven changes in the labour market. Representing the true main actors of the AI revolution, trade unions play a fundamental role in preventing and minimising the negative impacts on the world of work, while benefiting the most out of the advantages AI can bring to the workplace.

Actions taken: As of 2024, 42 per cent of trade unions are already negotiating on AI and algorithmic management. Unions are raising important issues related to workers and to the impact that AI is having and will have on them, in order to bring them to the attention of stakeholders.  

Stakeholder: Member States are the countries that are part of the European Union. As of today, they are 27. They collaborate on various issues including trade, security, and environmental policies, while also enjoying the benefits that come with the EU membership, such as free movement of goods, services, and people within the Union.

Actions taken: According to the AI act, AI policies are categorised under the field of social policy in terms of employment. In correspondence with the principle of conferral4 such matters fall under the shared competences of the EU5. Member States have therefore engaged in national AI regulation initiatives, merging the national interests with the needs and limits expressed by the EU. 

Core conflicts

Dehumanisation of workers and growth of inequality under the integration of AI in the workplace

The use of artificial intelligence to boost productivity has become, to some extent, deteriorating and dehumanising towards workers. Productivity-monitoring software is sparking a debate over the balance between the employer’s pecuniary interests in monitoring productivity and the employees’ privacy interests. Furthermore, there is a general agreement among experts that AI will increase inequality. AI is likely to reduce the relative amount of income going to low-skilled labour, which will increase inequality across society, and through the redistribution of labour, it would tend to further increase inequality both within countries and between them.

Mental health impact of AI in the workplace

By 2030, between 400 million and 800 million individuals could be displaced by automation and need to find new jobs. The physical strain workers will have to undergo in order to keep up with the needed skills to “stay afloat” will be accompanied by the mental strain of reduced contact with human peers and social support due to automation. Furthermore, with AI performing a variety of cognitive tasks such as assisting with legal casework or medical diagnoses, workers might be only left with repetitive work. Repetitiveness of tasks can result in cognitive underload, boredom and performance pressure, if not even isolation and lack of interaction. However, AI is set to help improve health and safety at work, both regarding psychological wellbeing and physical safety. 

Automated decision-making and discrimination

With AI being capable of decision-making, machine learning techniques have shown how unpredictable, near-impossible to reconstruct, or even document exhaustively automated decision-making can be. This leads to a clear problem in accountability, because, in concrete terms, the reason behind a decision might not be clear, or even present anymore, even just a few days after the event. Stress may therefore result from unfair decisions, lack of transparency and explainability. Considering that automated decision-making is based on data collected over time on workers, AI systems can replicate and systematise human biases that have historically existed in the labour market, maximising efficiency and productivity at the expense of personal growth and satisfaction.

Food for thought 

The integration of AI into our daily lives will transform, among many things, teaching and learning as well. Studies show that almost two-thirds of students use AI educational tools for school-related tasks. Furthermore, AI integration into school has shown to be beneficial in matters of personalised support for both teachers and students, identification of more up-to-date and efficient study courses, and improvement of student assessment. However, students should be introduced to such systems with care and responsibility. It is in fact easy to take AI-generated answers for granted, without questioning its truthfulness. Furthermore, this approach carries within itself the everlasting issue of the digital gap: 40% of students in Germany have access to digital devices, compared to 20% in France.

  • How can the EU ensure that all students within the Union benefit from the same AI-integrated teaching standards, in order to maximise the benefit of such systems? 

The youth is soon going to be the true main character of the AI revolution. For decades the new generation has fought to enhance social inclusion, empower young people and promote the communication between youth workers and young people, to be heard in order to shape their future. However, the decisional power of the youth over the development of AI is limited. Steps have been taken in the right direction, such as a survey promoted by AI4DA aimed at understanding the youth’s understanding, expectations, and perceptions regarding AI, or a study conducted by the European Union and the Council of Europe on the youth’s perception of AI, highlighting the perceived benefits and issues of AI integration in the workplace. 

  • How can the EU ensure that the voice of the youth is taken into account in the process of decision making over the development and integration of AI in both the near and distant future?

More than half of working adults fear losing their job due to the advent of AI, and given the potential automation, concerns are growing over the availability of jobs in the future. However, studies show that technology, while causing significant short-term job displacement, will actually create more jobs than those that are displaced in the long run, increasing both demand and productivity. Jobs will be slowly created elsewhere to absorb those who have been displaced. What should happen in the meantime to those who have lost their jobs, however, remains unclear. 

  • How should the EU deal with workers affected by job displacement due to AI integration, and support them in the process of both readjusting to the new labour market and learning new skills, considering that changing working positions will probably come with new required abilities?

Further research

“A Youth’s Perspective on AI and the Future of Work with Alex Liptrot”, by Creatives With AI, 2023

“The Impact of A.I. on Jobs,  Rutika Muchhala” by TEDx Talks, 2019

“The big debate about the future of work, explained” by Vox, 2017

“Will AI Take Your Job? The Future of Work”, by Secrets of the Corporate Game

Quizlet

In order to help you remember the most important information present in the Topic Overview, a quizlet was created! Make sure to give it a try here! 

  1.  The consumer’s desire to buy a product or service.
    ↩︎
  2. Category of jobs characterised by advanced education, possession of knowledge and skills to perform complicated tasks, and creative application of knowledge and skills acquired through training and experience. ↩︎
  3. According to the guidelines, the EU should be committed to a human-centric AI, one in which individual freedoms and respect for human dignity are taken into account,  rather than implying an individualistic account of the human. ↩︎
  4. Principle under which the EU acts only within the limits of the competences that Member States have conferred upon it in the treaties. ↩︎
  5. The division of competences classifies three types of competences: exclusive competences, Only the EU can act in these areas; shared competences, Member States can act only if the EU has chosen not to; support competences, the EU can support Member States’ actions in these areas. ↩︎