Phoebe V Moore (University of Leicester) has posted “AI Trainers: Who is the Smart Worker today?” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
AI is often linked to automation and potential job losses, but it is more suitably described as an augmentation tool for data collection and usage, rather than a stand-alone entity, or in ways that avoid precise definitions. AI machines and systems are seen to demonstrate competences which are increasingly similar to human decision-making and prediction. AI-augmented tools and applications are intended to improve human resources and allow more sophisticated tracking of productivity, attendance and even health data for workers. These tools are often seen to perform much faster and more accurately than humans. What does this mean for workers of the future, however?
If AI does actually become as prevalent and as significant as predictions would have it – and we really do make ourselves the direct mirror reflection of machines, and/or simply resources for fuelling them through the production of datasets via our own supposed intelligence of, e.g., image recognition – then we will have a very real set of problems on our hands. Potentially, workers will only be necessary for machinic maintenance or, as discussed in this chapter, as ‘AI trainers’. How can we prepare ourselves to work with smart machines, and thus to become ourselves, ‘smart workers’?
AI Law Blawg 