The White House Is Probing How Companies Use AI To Surveil And Manage Workers
(Bloomberg) -- The White House is investigating how companies are using AI to track and manage workers, a practice the Biden administration says is becoming more common and could cause significant harm.
"Although these technologies benefit workers and employers in some cases, they can also pose serious risks to workers," wrote members of the White House Domestic Policy Council and the Attorney General's Office in a Policy Blog post. White Science home. and Technology. intended for subsequent publication. On Monday, it announced a formal request for public information about how automated tools are being used in the workplace.
"Continuous performance monitoring can cause workers to rush to work and pose a risk to their safety and mental health," wrote officials, including Jenny Yang, assistant vice president for racial justice and equity and assistant chief officer. of technology in the United States. Deirdre Mulligan. Additionally, they write, using technology to monitor workers' conversations can prevent them from exercising their right to organize, and artificial intelligence can encourage discrimination in wages and discipline.
Lawmakers and lawyers across the country are paying increasing attention to how companies are using technology to monitor their employees. Last week, the Minnesota State House passed legislation against Amazon.com Inc. for providing companies like warehouse workers with copies of the data they've collected about their work patterns. California and New York have passed similar legislation regulating warehouse productivity quotas in the past two years.
The White House's subsequent request for information, reviewed by Bloomberg, cites reports that surveillance technology has spread to all sectors of the US economy. Applications include: eye movement tracking of truck drivers; document the speed with which fast food workers prepare meals; Evaluate the emotional state of customers on the phone with call center agents. Track nurses' movements via radio frequency identification tags on their badges; Create automatic screenshots of editors' computers.
Read more: Amazon sues over accidents involving drivers rushing to make deliveries
The motion seeks input from workers, employers, developers, researchers and stakeholders on the use and impact of surveillance technology in the workplace, including "the economic, safety, physical, mental and emotional impacts." The administration also wants to know what regulations, enforcement actions or strategies the government should consider to address it. The document clarifies that its survey includes construction workers classified as "independent contractors" in addition to regular workers.
In a letter last year, US Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, called on the federal Department of Labor to begin regulating the "largely unchecked proliferation of invasive and exploitative technology and surveillance in the workplace." Citing news stories, including a 2021 Bloomberg article detailing complaints from Amazon contract executives that performance-tracking algorithms were unfairly penalizing and even terminating them, Casey dismissed real-world roadblocks as traffic jams. and blockaded apartment complexes. (Amazon said their experiences were not representative and that all calls from drivers are being reviewed. The company also said it uses "safe and achievable expectations" to gauge the performance of warehouse workers.)
In the following blog post, Yang and Mulligan write that gathering intelligence on surveillance and surveillance technology would help promote “fair and just jobs,” promote racial equity, and “ensure workers are treated with respect and dignity and have opportunities". . "and join the unions."
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