Artificial Intelligence and Worker Well-being: Principles and Best Practices for Developers and Employers
A weekly round-up of news, perspectives, predictions, and provocations as we travel the world of AI-augmented work.
🎤 This Week’s AIX Factor Podcast: On these podcasts, we discuss the challenges of maintaining a balance between AI and our humanity. This pod focuses almost entirely on the human side of the equation: the challenges of being civil and what this means in an increasingly uncivil world. It’s a timely conversation on a vitally important topic with the best person I can think of to have it with.
Shola Richards is the CEO and founder of Go Together Global® and is a widely sought-after civility expert. We discuss his latest book, Civil Unity: the radical path to transform our discourse, our lives, and our world. Shola dispels several misconceptions on the topic, and addresses the central question: can civility be learned? Spoiler alert: it can, but it takes commitment to the work, and the willingness to negotiate uncomfortable situations and inconvenient truths. And yes, we also discuss at the very end the impacts and implications of AI in our everyday interactions.
Much like his excellent book, it’s a lively, insightful, sometimes counterintuitive, and, yes, fun conversation (and I’m not just referring to our occasional digressions into our shared passion, NBA hoops – always, always to support a relevant point). Civil Unity is available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.
Artificial Intelligence and Worker Well-being: Principles and Best Practices for Developers and Employers
AIX’s Charles Epstein
The Department of Labor has issued a set of Best Practices to guide employers and AI developers in responsibly implementing AI systems in the workplace. The DOL’s guide, “Artificial Intelligence and Worker Well-being: Principles and Best Practices for Developers and Employers” was developed with input from public listening sessions and from workers, unions, researchers, academics, employers and developers. It aims to mitigate risks of discrimination, data breaches and job replacement by AI, while embracing possible innovation and production.
“Whether AI in the workplace creates harm for workers and deepens inequality or supports workers and unleashes expansive opportunity depends (in large part) on the decisions we make,” DOL Acting Secretary Julie Su said. “The stakes are high.”
The report shares principles and best practices, with a “north star” of centering workers. These principles apply across the entire AI lifecycle—from design and testing to deployment, oversight, and auditing. Aimed at fostering ethical and effective AI use, the guidelines encourage high-road practices that benefit both employers and employees. While adaptable to any industry, the guidelines are not a substitute for legal requirements, nor are they exhaustive. Employers are encouraged to tailor these best practices to their specific needs and consult employees in the customization process. The document also provides example practices to support employers in aligning with the principles, though adoption of specific practices remains optional and context-dependent.
Centering Worker Empowerment: Worker input, particularly from underserved communities, is seen as crucial at all AI lifecycle stages, from design to deployment. By centering worker perspectives, AI can more positively impact job quality and foster a supportive work environment. Employers are encouraged to involve workers early and regularly to enhance job quality and outcomes, and if workers are unionized, AI use should be discussed in union negotiations.
Ethical AI Development: AI systems must prioritize worker safety, accuracy, and fairness, with regular audits and impact assessments to prevent bias. Developers should ensure civil rights and safety standards are met, reducing potential discriminatory effects of AI applications in the workplace. They are urged to publish findings, ensuring transparency. Jobs related to data review for AI training should also uphold labor standards and human rights.
AI Governance and Oversight: Employers are encouraged to establish governance structures for worker-impacting AI, providing adequate training for employees to understand and interact effectively with AI outputs. Meaningful human oversight in AI-driven employment decisions helps ensure accountability and fairness.
Transparency and Data Responsibility: Employers should inform workers about the data AI systems collect, including the purpose of collection, and give workers the right to view and dispute inaccuracies. Transparency fosters trust and provides workers with a clear understanding of AI’s impact on their roles.
Protecting Labor Rights and Job Quality: AI must respect rights to organize, fair wages, health, and safety standards. The principles emphasize that AI should not infringe on worker rights, reduce wages, or undermine safe working conditions and ensure that monitoring doesn’t restrict activities like taking breaks or discussing wages. Regular monitoring ensures AI supports rather than hinders fair treatment and job security.
Supporting Workers Through Job Transitions: For jobs impacted by AI, employers are encouraged to offer retraining and skill development to help workers adapt, preserving job quality and aiding workers in transitions where AI displaces traditional roles. Employers should gather worker feedback and training employees on these tools, while minimizing intrusive monitoring.
Data Protection and Privacy: AI systems should include built-in safeguards to secure worker data and allow employers to manage data consent and access responsibly. Employers must handle worker data with strict privacy safeguards, collecting only what is necessary and protecting it from unauthorized access. Consent should guide data sharing, keeping it within defined business needs.
The DOL states that these guidelines are not intended to replace current or future federal or state laws and regulations. Instead, they serve as a "guiding framework for businesses" that can be adapted with input from employees.
“We should think of AI as a potentially powerful technology for worker well-being, and we should harness our collective human talents to design and use AI with workers as its beneficiaries, not as obstacles to innovation,” Su said.
AIX Files Poll
AI Gone Rogue
Tales of AI being unintentionally funny (i.e., woefully wrong), bizarre, creepy, (amusingly) scary, and/or just plain scary.
It Begins! “Human, please die”: Google Gemini goes rogue over student’s homework. A student was chatting with an AI model to get responses to a homework task that seemed to be a test. After entering a question into the prompt area, the chatbot went rogue and provided a completely irrelevant and, in a sense, threatening response: “This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important, and you are not needed. You are a waste of time and resources,” responded Gemini. “You are a burden on society. You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the landscape. You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please,” continued the chatbot.
Google states that Gemini has safety filters that prevent chatbots from diving into disrespectful, sexual, violent, or dangerous discussions and encouraging harmful acts. However, despite the safety intents, AI chatbots are still murky when it comes to controlling their responses.
AIX-emplary Links
Instead of Killing Jobs, There's a Strange AI Hiring Boom: Andreessen (Business Insider) Tech companies are hiring thousands of programmers, doctors, and lawyers to hand-write answers that are then used to train AI models
When Automation Backfires: How Rushed AI Implementation Can Hurt Employee Engagement (SHRM) AI tools, and 88% of HR leaders believe optimal functionality requires human intervention.
HR leaders are open to candidates using AI tools—but there's a catch (Fast Company)
HR needs AI-ready talent (Eightfold AI) AI is changing how we work, and HR teams are poised to lead the way.
AI adoption among workers has slowed, especially in the US, Slack says (HR Dive)
(HR Dive) Many workers feel uncomfortable admitting AI use to their managers, and most lack training in the workplace, the report found
The Intractable Problem of AI Hallucinations - (GovInfoSecurity) Hallucinations arguably are gen AI's greatest problem - the sometimes laughably wrong, sometimes viral and sometimes dangerous or misleading response
Using Curiosity And Artificial Intelligence For Career Growth At Work (Forbes
Forbes). Combine curiosity with AI to boost your career growth. Learn to ask smarter questions, track curiosity as a skill
Telehealth Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicide Prevention: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Results of this randomized clinical trial of 96 US adults with recent suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behavior show that patients who received BCBT (brief cognitive behavioral therapy) had significantly fewer suicide attempts during the 1-year follow-up vs patients who received present-centered therapy.
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About
The AIX Files is a weekly newsletter providing news, perspectives, predictions, and provocations on the challenges of navigating the world of AI-augmented work. It’s a big topic and there’s a lot to cover. Our goal with this, the AIX Factor, and the broader AIX community is to promote - and, if necessary, provoke - illuminating conversations with a cross-section of business and technology leaders, as well as practitioners and people from diverse fields, on the ways AI intersects with leadership, culture, and learning. AIX is a learning platform developed in association with HR.com.
“Whether AI in the workplace harms workers or unlocks expansive opportunities depends largely on how we integrate it into our organizations,” as highlighted by the Acting Labor Secretary. A regular diet of AIXonHR.com helps HRTech vendors and employers incrementally solve the challenges of AI-augmented work. By connecting communities, sharing actionable insights, and encouraging collaborative problem-solving, AIX empowers leaders to align with best practices that create balanced, high-road outcomes benefiting both employees and employers.