AI

Conference notes that the accelerating development of Artificial Intelligence has the potential to emancipate humanity or lead to profound risks, including loss of control, extreme inequality, mass disruption, and existential threats. The outcomes of this technological revolution are not inevitable; they are contingent on social choices.

Responsibility for the development of and control over AI must not be left solely in the hands of unaccountable private tech companies or the super-rich who are purely motivated by the maximisation of profit and power.

Ensuring AI benefits humanity requires political action across infrastructure, regulation, democratic oversight, global equity, ethics and the environment.

As the largest civil society organisation trade unions, should play a leading role as the collective voice of working people and their families in seeking protections and democratic accountability over such technology and to ensure that AI augments human work rather than replaces it.

Conference therefore calls on NIC-ICTU to campaign for robust regulation and democratic human oversight of AI and automated systems across the economy and wider society.

Conference also calls on NIC-ICTU to encourage and facilitate the sharing of affiliated union’s knowledge and resources, and to utilise the experience of the international trade union movement, to allow for collective consideration of the implications of the introduction of AI and automated systems to the workplace. The aim being to increase understanding of AI, identify risks, and to develop strategies that protect working people, enhance the quality of jobs, and formulate demands to ensure that workers share in the technological gains.