AI: Workers Need More Protection – TUC Unions

Britain is lagging behind in protecting workers from artificial intelligence (AI), unions have warned.

The TUC said the UK has no plans to regulate the use of AI in hiring, firing and setting working conditions like the EU’s AI law. The union asked a special committee to draft a legal protection.

He said the government was committed to improving and defending workers’ rights.

Octopus Energy’s president told the BBC that his customers prefer emails written by AI to staff.

Business leaders welcome AI’s potential to drive innovation, productivity and improve customer service.

But unions say they are “deeply concerned” that UK employment law has not kept up with the AI ​​revolution.

“The kinds of decisions being made by AI are important and life-changing,” said Mary Towers, head of employment rights policy at TUC. It’s about how work is done in a place,” he said.

The lack of AI-specific legislation means the UK is being left behind, she said. “The EU, for example, is passing an AI law. There is no equivalent in this country.”

Octopus Energy uses AI to read, interpret and answer customer service questions. Chief Executive Officer Greg Jackson said the company is doing work that would otherwise require an additional 250 people.

Customers seem to prefer interacting with AI over humans, he said.

“Emails written by our team members have a 65% satisfaction rate from our customers,” he said. “The satisfaction rate of A’s emails created by her AI is 80 or 85% for him, which means that the work of AI has enabled our team to excel in servicing our customers in a time of great need. I will be able to work.”

He added that having a human command the AI ​​to write an email would “save a lot of tedious typing.”

“But we must ensure that this is all done responsibly, and we have governments, economists and businesses to ensure that this is done by enhancing and creating jobs rather than replacing them. is needed.”

AI could bring big advances in science and medicine, according to the president of pharmaceutical giant GSK. Emma Walmsley told the BBC that the speed at which AI could process data and recognize patterns would revolutionize drug development.

“Biopharmaceuticals are difficult. Sometimes it takes decades, billions of years, and the failure rate is 90%,” she said.

“But we are in the business of working with data at the heart of what we do. AI allows us to see what this data is, much faster.”

He said this means that drug and vaccine discovery and development will become “more predictable and more likely to be successful.”

And that could mean improved health for hundreds of millions of people, she said.

“One in three of us will be battling dementia, cancer without a cure remains high, and infectious diseases still cause one in six deaths worldwide,” she said. rice field.

“There was no doubt” that AI “helps us come up with better solutions to these challenges,” she said. “And it should be something worth investing in, optimistically, while regulating responsibly.”

Walmsley believes that productivity gains from the use of AI will create more jobs and “change some jobs in a very meaningful way.”

“Some places will need to cut staff, but there will be spaces that need more people,” she said.

The creative arts are sometimes thought to be the least susceptible to AI, as machine learning struggles to replicate human creativity.

But actress and dubbing artist Lawrence Bouvard said that was a mistake, saying AI is being used to sample, analyze and replicate human voices without paying the original artists.

“When we work, we have to sign a waiver of all rights to receive money,” she said. “And these AI companies are just embracing it without asking who it belongs to.”

She said AI is a particular threat to the “army” of lesser-known artists who provide voices for comics, video games, dictionaries and other voice works, and that AI could be completely career-destroying. Stated.

“Writers, artists and photographers can create new work even if their work is stolen. If my voice is stolen, my career is over,” she said. .

AI is a powerful force and is already transforming industries and workplaces. The OECD said last week that the world was “on the brink of an AI revolution”.

“Urgent action is needed to ensure that AI is used in the workplace in a responsible and trustworthy manner,” the Paris-based group said.

With great power comes great responsibility, and it is not yet clear, either in the UK or internationally, who will bear the responsibility and who will bear it.

“AI will drive growth and create new high-paying jobs across the UK, while making existing jobs more efficient and safer,” said a government spokesperson.

“That is why we are working with companies and regulators to ensure AI is used safely and responsibly in the workplace.”