7. Secure a Just Transition and Ensuring Support for Fundamental Freedoms and Rights

As AI systems develop and augmented realities are formed, workers and work tasks will be displaced. To ensure a just transition, as well as sustainable future developments, it is vital that corporate policies are put in place that ensure corporate accountability in relation to this displacement, such as retraining programmes and job change possibilities. Governmental measures to help displaced workers retrain and find new employment are additionally required. AI systems coupled with the wider transition to the digital economy will require that workers on all levels and in all occupations have access to social security and to continuous lifelong learning to remain employable. It is the responsibility of states and companies to find solutions that provide all workers, in all forms of work, the right to and access to both. In addition, in a world where the casualisation or individualisation of work is rising, all workers in all forms of work must have the same, strong social and fundamental rights. All AI systems must include a check and balance on whether its deployment and augmentation go hand in hand with workers’ rights as laid out in human right laws, ILO conventions and collective agreements. An algorithm “8798” reflecting the core ILO conventions 87 and 98 that is built into the system could serve that very purpose. Upon failure, the system must be shut down.
Principle: Top 10 Principles For Ethical Artificial Intelligence, Dec 11, 2017

Published by UNI Global Union

Related Principles

Preamble

Two of Deutsche Telekom’s most important goals are to keep being a trusted companion and to enhance customer experience. We see it as our responsibility as one of the leading ICT companies in Europe to foster the development of “intelligent technologies”. At least either important, these technologies, such as AI, must follow predefined ethical rules. To define a corresponding ethical framework, firstly it needs a common understanding on what AI means. Today there are several definitions of AI, like the very first one of John McCarthy (1956) “Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.” In line with other companies and main players in the field of AI we at DT think of AI as the imitation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning, reasoning, and self correction. After several decades, Artificial Intelligence has become one of the most intriguing topics of today – and the future. It has become widespread available and is discussed not only among experts but also more and more in public, politics, etc.. AI has started to influence business (new market opportunities as well as efficiency driver), society (e.g. broad discussion about autonomously driving vehicles or AI as “job machine” vs. “job killer”) and the life of each individual (AI already found its way into the living room, e.g. with voice steered digital assistants like smart speakers). But the use of AI and its possibilities confront us not only with fast developing technologies but as well as with the fact that our ethical roadmaps, based on human human interactions, might not be sufficient in this new era of technological influence. New questions arise and situations that were not imaginable in our daily lives then emerge. We as DT also want to develop and make use of AI. This technology can bring many benefits based on improving customer experience or simplicity. We are already in the game, e.g having several AI related projects running. With these comes an increase of digital responsibility on our side to ensure that AI is utilized in an ethical manner. So we as DT have to give answers to our customers, shareholders and stakeholders. The following Digital Ethics guidelines state how we as Deutsche Telekom want to build the future with AI. For us, technology serves one main purpose: It must act supportingly. Thus AI is in any case supposed to extend and complement human abilities rather than lessen them. Remark: The impact of AI on DT jobs – may it as a benefit and for value creation in the sense of job enrichment and enlargement or may it in the sense of efficiency is however not focus of these guidelines.

Published by Deutsche Telekom in Deutsche Telekom’s guidelines for artificial intelligence, May 11, 2018

· 2.4. Building human capacity and preparing for labor market transformation

a) Governments should work closely with stakeholders to prepare for the transformation of the world of work and of society. They should empower people to effectively use and interact with AI systems across the breadth of applications, including by equipping them with the necessary skills. b) Governments should take steps, including through social dialogue, to ensure a fair transition for workers as AI is deployed, such as through training programs along the working life, support for those affected by displacement, and access to new opportunities in the labor market. c) Governments should also work closely with stakeholders to promote the responsible use of AI at work, to enhance the safety of workers and the quality of jobs, to foster entrepreneurship and productivity, and aim to ensure that the benefits from AI are broadly and fairly shared.

Published by G20 Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Digital Economy in G20 AI Principles, Jun 09, 2019

4. All citizens have the right to be educated to enable them to flourish mentally, emotionally and economically alongside artificial intelligence.

We welcome the measures to increase the number of computer science teachers in secondary schools and we urge the Government to ensure that there is support for teachers with associated skills and subjects such as mathematics to retrain. At earlier stages of education, children need to be adequately prepared for working with, and using, AI. For all children, the basic knowledge and understanding necessary to navigate an AI driven world will be essential. AI will have significant implications for the ways in which society lives and works. AI may accelerate the digital disruption in the jobs market. Many jobs will be enhanced by AI, many will disappear and many new, as yet unknown jobs, will be created. A significant Government investment in skills and training is needed if this disruption is to be navigated successfully and to the benefit of the working population and national productivity growth.

Published by House of Lords of United Kingdom, Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in AI Code, Apr 16, 2018

· 2.4. Building human capacity and preparing for labor market transformation

a) Governments should work closely with stakeholders to prepare for the transformation of the world of work and of society. They should empower people to effectively use and interact with AI systems across the breadth of applications, including by equipping them with the necessary skills. b) Governments should take steps, including through social dialogue, to ensure a fair transition for workers as AI is deployed, such as through training programs along the working life, support for those affected by displacement, and access to new opportunities in the labor market. c) Governments should also work closely with stakeholders to promote the responsible use of AI at work, to enhance the safety of workers and the quality of jobs, to foster entrepreneurship and productivity, and aim to ensure that the benefits from AI are broadly and fairly shared.

Published by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence, May 22, 2019

4. Adopt a Human In Command Approach

An absolute precondition is that the development of AI must be responsible, safe and useful, where machines maintain the legal status of tools, and legal persons retain control over, and responsibility for, these machines at all times. This entails that AI systems should be designed and operated to comply with existing law, including privacy. Workers should have the right to access, manage and control the data AI systems generate, given said systems’ power to analyse and utilize that data (See principle 1 in “Top 10 principles for workers’ data privacy and protection”). Workers must also have the ‘right of explanation’ when AI systems are used in human resource procedures, such as recruitment, promotion or dismissal.

Published by UNI Global Union in Top 10 Principles For Ethical Artificial Intelligence, Dec 11, 2017