How to protect human rights in an AI-filled workplace

The biggest concern for most people when it comes to AI and work is: Are robots going to take our jobs?

Honestly, we’re right to be concerned. According to McKinsey & Company, 45 million jobs, or a quarter of the workforce, could be lost to automation by 2030. Of course, the promise is that AI will create jobs, too, and we’ve already started to see emerging roles like prompt engineers and AI ethicists crop up.

But many of us also have concerns about how AI is being incorporated into our fields. Should a bot host a podcast, write an article, or replace an actor? Can AI be a therapist, a tutor, or build a car?

According to a Workday global survey, three out of four employees say their organization is not collaborating on AI regulation and the same share says their company has yet to provide guidelines on responsible AI use.

On the final episode in The New Way We Work’s mini-series on how AI is changing our jobs, I spoke to Lorena Gonzalez. She’s the president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, a former assemblywoman, and has written AI transparency legislation, including a law designed to prevent algorithms from denying workers break time.

While there are many industry-specific concerns about AI in workplaces, she says that some of the most effective and impactful AI regulations address common issues that touch on many different types of workplaces. 

Robot bosses and algorithmic management

Gonzalez’s first bill on algorithmic management applied specifically to warehouses. “We wanted to give workers the power to question the algorithm that was speeding up their quota,” she said. Gonzalez explained that there was no human interaction and it was leading to an increase in warehouse injuries.

“What we started with in the warehouse bill, we’re really seeing expand throughout different types of work. When you’re dealing with an algorithm, even the basic experience of having to leave your desk or leave your station . . . to use the restroom, becomes problematic,” she says. “Taking away the human element obviously has a structural problem for workers, but it has a humanity problem, as well.”

Privacy 

Gonzalez is also working on bills regarding worker privacy. She says some companies are going beyond the basics of watching or listening to employees, like using AI tools for things like heat mapping. Gonzalez also says she’s seen companies require employees to wear devices that track who they are talking with (in previously protected places like break rooms or bathrooms), and monitoring how fast workers drive when not on the clock.

Data collection and storage

A third area of focus for Gonzalez is data that’s being taken from workers without their knowledge, including through facial recognition tools. As an employee, you have a “right to understand what is being taken by a computer or by AI as you’re doing the work, sometimes to replace you, sometimes to evaluate you,” she says.

These are issues that came up in the SAG-AFTRA strike last year, but she says these issues come up in different forms in different industries. “We’ve heard it from Longshoremen who say the computer works side-by-side to try to mimic the responses that the worker is giving,” she says. “The workers should have the right to know that they’re being monitored, that their data is being taken, and there should be some liability involved.”

Beyond these broader cases of AI regulation, Gonzalez says that business leaders should talk to their employees about how new technology will impact their jobs, before it’s implemented, not after. “Those at the very top get sold on new technology as being cool and being innovative and being able to do things faster and quicker and not really going through the entirety of what these jobs are and not really imagining what on a day-to-day basis that [a] worker has to deal with,” she says.

Listen to the full episode for more on how workers are fighting for AI regulation in industries like healthcare and retail and the crucial missing step in AI development Gonzalez sees coming out of Silicon Valley.

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