Fair Play is for people doing good work in a complicated world, and trying to stay creative, connected, and human while they do it. I explore ideas about creativity, communication, meaningful work, and our relationship with technology — with curiosity, integrity, and a little foolishness. Welcome! You're in good company.
A.I. At Work? Is it all dire?
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Happy Thursday, Fair Players! Earlier this week I went to the Ian P. Sharp Lectureship hosted by the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. The reason I went was because the topic was A.I. At Work: Automation, Surveillance & The Future of Jobs, and we heard lectures from Prof. Karen Levy (Cornell University), and Prof. Yochai Benkler (Harvard Law School). There were a few tidbits that I wanted to share with you, my friends…And its not all dire!!Prof. Levy shared some tangible examples from her research on American truckers and retail workers about the ways that these workers are surveilled through different technologies, including A.I., and how this reallocates the risks and costs of work from organizations to workers themselves. Prof. Benkler shared higher-level conceptualizations of shifts in the labour market, leveraging history and political theory to highlight the ways that markets drive innovation and dislocation including related to A.I. The tricky part about this lecture was you really had to be up on your Marx to fully appreciate the arguments, which, of course, I am not. (I did my best...) There were a couple of things that stood out to me about these lectures.First was the ways that embodied knowledge and work is being pushed towards “unskilled” with the use of A.I, and the parallel diminishment of working conditions that people are forced to accept because the alternative is not working at all (this is US-based research). Prof. Levy’s examples of the ways that truckers’ bodies are monitored using technology to address alertness and fatigue, instead of addressing the underlying structural and organizational issues that force truckers to drive tired (for example, cutting tasks and work into small pieces, and only compensating for certain parts of that work – forcing more hours of unpaid work that is required to do the paid tasks. Levy’s example for truckers is only being compensated for driving itself, not loading and unloading the vehicle and other tasks). Right after the lecture, a reel popped up in my Instagram feed related to on-screen performers. Without proper policy, actors are finding that their voice and likeness are being replicated without their consent, and being used to train A.I. models they didn’t agree to. Here is the reel from ACTRA (Canada’s union for on-screen performers). Second thing I wanted to highlight was that ways that A.I. is not being taken up in a vacuum, nor is its uptake universal across continents and nations. Prof. Benkler cited several European studies where the labour outcomes are drastically different from American outcomes. He cited results that included increased economic efficiency and improved wages and labour conditions for workers.* The ACTRA Instagram reel mentions recent rulings in China and European regulations. Cultural values and historical relationships to power shaped both the uptake of A.I. as well as the ways it is being regulated (or not) across different jurisdictions. This gave me some hope.There is a lot of work to be done around policy-making for A.I. It is not inevitable that the Tech Bros continue to run amok and re-shape our lives through the imposition of this technology with no ethical grounding. Its not to say that A.I. won't re-shape our lives and work (it's kinda like the printing press in that way...), but it's that guardrails are needed to support everyone's transition into sustainable and ethical uptake. If you are not an A.I. expert or policy-wonk (as I am not!), you can still write to your representative about how your work experiences have changed with the advancement of A.I. and the need for regulation. You can also connect with your local association, union, or advocacy group. What do you think? Julia *unfortunately, the lecture slide was too quick for me to make note of those specific studies!! Julia Gray, PhDWebsite | Instagram | LinkedIn
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Fair Play
Fair Play is for people doing good work in a complicated world, and trying to stay creative, connected, and human while they do it. I explore ideas about creativity, communication, meaningful work, and our relationship with technology — with curiosity, integrity, and a little foolishness. Welcome! You're in good company.
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