Artificial intelligence, labour and society
ETUI aisbl, Brussels, (March 2024)Abstract
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is unparalleled, establishing it as a ubiquitous element in workplaces and our daily lives. The era when AI was exclusively associated with robots and intricate algorithms for the technically proficient is over. This marks a significant paradigm shift, with profound implications and changes regarding the world we live in.
This book proposes an analysis of this transformation, and does so by bringing together the reflections of high-level academics and research activists from across the world. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach, incorporates a diversity of geographical and cultural points of view and focuses on the deep and often invisible implications of AI for the labour market and society as a whole. Thematically speaking, it addresses AI’s legal, societal, global, environmental, technological and labour aspects.
The contributing authors show how contemporary AI is gradually reshaping society. They also highlight the need to understand the dynamics of technological convergence and remind us of the critical role played by humans, who remain present at every stage of AI’s lifecycle and value chain. Prevention and precaution are portrayed as crucial components of the critical thinking approach we need to adopt towards AI.
The book also examines the power dynamics of technological evolution and governance, explores AI’s relationship with the environment and tackles the crucial issue of AI’s impact on the labour market, working conditions and labour standards. Its fundamental goal is to prompt readers to transcend the narrow disciplinary perspectives associated with the silos within which we tend to work, introducing a range of novel and diverse academic viewpoints on AI and its challenges.