Guiding Values for Morally Sound Artificial Intelligence
In the rapidly evolving world of AI, robotics, data, and machine learning, the UNI Global Union has taken a significant step towards ensuring workers' rights, dignity, and fairness are upheld in the workplace. The union has developed the Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI, a comprehensive framework aimed at guiding unions, shop stewards, and workers in their interactions with AI technology.
The principles, which align closely with broader ethical AI frameworks, focus on transparency, accountability, privacy protection, fairness, and worker inclusion and participation. They also emphasise safety and security in AI applications affecting labor, respect for human rights and dignity, and the importance of these foundational elements in ethical AI.
While the exact list of UNI's Top Ten Principles was not explicitly detailed, these themes align with the Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights, which emphasise safeguarding workers' personal data when collected or processed by AI systems in workplaces. These principles include the right to be informed about data collection and use, access and correction of personal data, privacy and confidentiality, consent and control over data processing, protection against unfair or discriminatory use of data, assurance of data security, and participation in decisions regarding workplace technologies affecting data.
Together, these principles seek to protect workers from potential harms of AI while promoting ethical deployment and responsible data handling in labor contexts. The ethical AI principles guide responsible AI design and governance, while the data rights principles ensure workers retain control and fairness regarding their personal data.
The Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI are not only aimed at unions and shop stewards but also at various parties involved in AI deployment, including multinational worker alliances. The document is intended to be incorporated into collective agreements and can also form part of Global Framework Agreements.
It is important to note that these principles do not specify the nature or extent of the disruptions caused by AI, robotics, data, and machine learning in workplaces. However, it is clear that these technologies are displacing and disrupting workers and jobs globally.
In the face of these challenges, the UNI Global Union's ethical AI principles provide a broad ethical stance towards AI's impact on work and workers, offering a proactive approach to safeguarding workers' interests in the digital age. The union urges unions and multinational worker alliances to take immediate action, getting involved in the context of AI integration into workplaces to ensure a healthy balance of power and fair treatment for all workers.
[1] UNI Global Union. (n.d.). Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI. Retrieved from https://www.uniglobalunion.org/ [2] UNI Global Union. (n.d.). Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights. Retrieved from https://www.uniglobalunion.org/ [3] International Labour Organization. (2020). Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work. Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/artificial-intelligence/lang--en/index.htm
- The UNI Global Union's Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI not only prioritize the concerns of unions and shop stewards, but also emphasize the importance of these principles in the development and deployment of AI technology, considering its impact on health, privacy, and fairness for all workers.
- In the debate on the role of artificial intelligence and its impact on jobs, the UNI Global Union's proactive approach, as outlined in their Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights and Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI, underscores the significance of maintaining an opinion advocating for workers' rights, dignity, and fairness in the rapidly advancing landscape of technology, ensuring a balance between innovation and ethical responsibilities.
