6.12.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 465/81 Tuesday 3 May 2022
76.
Highlights the role AI can play in assisting enforcement action by European and national authorities, particularly in the fields of customs and market surveillance; is of the opinion that trade and customs procedures can be made more efficient and more cost-effective through AI, by increasing compliance and ensuring that only safe products enter the single market; points to the example of the Canada Border Services Agency Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, which greatly simplifies import and export procedures using qualified AI risk assessment and streamlined digitalised information management to reduce the need for lengthy inspections;
e) AI and the labour market
77.
Notes that AI is increasingly influencing the labour market, the workplace and the social domain and that the impacts of technological change on work and employment are multifaceted; emphasises that the use of AI in this area gives rise to a number of ethical, legal and employment related challenges; is concerned that in terms of the labour market, digitalisation could lead to workforce reorganisation and the potential disappearance of certain sectors of employment; believes that the adoption of AI, if combined with the necessary support infrastructure, education and training, could increase capital and labour productivity, innovation, sustainable growth and job creation;
78.
Stresses that although AI may replace some tasks, including repetitive, heavy, labour-intensive or dangerous ones, it could also help to improve skills, raise the quality of work and create new, higher value-added employment, leaving more time for stimulating tasks and career development; stresses that AI is currently already substituting or complementing humans in a subset of tasks but that it is not yet having detectable significant aggregate labour market consequences (30); stresses, however, the potential for an increase in income inequality if AI increases high-skill occupations and replaces low-skill occupations; adds that any resulting economic and social implications need to be mitigated by appropriate measures, research and foresight and prepared for by investing in reskilling and upskilling of the workforce with a focus on underrepresented groups such as women and minorities, who are likely to be most affected by this transition, and by promoting diversity in all phases of development of AI systems; is concerned that AI could produce processes of deskilling and create and embed low-paid, low-autonomy work and extend atypical, flexible (or ‘gig’) work; underlines that algorithmic management could lead to power imbalances between management and employees and obscurity about decision-making;
79.
Highlights that AI uptake offers an opportunity to foster significant cultural change within organisations, including through improved workplace safety, better work-life balance, and offering the right to disconnect and more effective training opportunities and guidance to employees; points, in this regard, to the recommendations of the OECD stressing that automation could also give rise to a reduction of working time, thus improving workers’ living conditions and health; is of the opinion that human-empowering AI applications could also create new job opportunities, in particular for those who, because of restrictions such as disabilities or living circumstances, have until now been bound to less qualified jobs; stresses the need to use AI assistance in the workplace to provide time for humans to improve the quality of their output instead of just increasing the workload;
80.
Condemns the increased recourse to AI-fuelled surveillance in the workplace, often occurring without the workers’ knowledge, let alone their consent, particularly also in the context of teleworking; sustains that this practice should not be allowed, as it is extremely abusive of the fundamental right to privacy, data protection and the human dignity of the worker and to social and labour rights, and also has negative effects on the mental health of workers due to the degree of intrusion, its blanket or indiscriminate effect, and lack of safeguards for affected individuals;
81.
Is concerned that a similar risk of surveillance is present also in the school environment, with the increasing adoption of AI systems in schools, undermining the fundamental rights of children; notes that the implications AI has for children’s privacy, safety and security fall across a wide spectrum, from benefits related to the ability to understand threats facing children with greater specificity and accuracy, to risks around unintended privacy infringements; underlines that both the positive and negative implications for children’s privacy, safety and security call for close examination and corresponding safeguards; further stresses that special consideration and protection need to be given to children when developing AI systems because of their particularly sensitive nature and specific vulnerabilities;
(30)
Acemoglu, D., et al., AI and Jobs: Evidence from Online Vacancies, National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2020.