While the world holds its breath to see if the US tech industry can bring about human-level artificial intelligence — and therefore completely rewrite the social contract and economy — experts are warning current iterations of the tech are already remaking the workplace in insidious ways.
This week, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), a group representing nearly 45 million workers across 40 European countries, published a comprehensive report about the disturbing impact of algorithms that increasingly control the workplace.
Titled “Negotiating the Algorithm,” the 70-page tome lays out the basic facts about algorithmic management, the use of AI programs to oversee workers on the job. Far from a dystopian fantasy, the ETUC alerts readers to the alarming rise of the tech. In fact, an early study from this year found that 79 percent of job sites across the EU — and 90 percent in the US — already use at least one algorithmic management tool to govern the rank and file.
Though most of us roll our eyes when our bosses roll out a new piece of software at work, algorithmic management is already drastically changing the power dynamics of the workplace. And as the ETUC warns, those changes never seem to pan out in the worker’s favor.
Ultimately, the ETUC guide identifies seven risks — or functions, depending on your point of view — that come from AI governance: discriminatory work assignments, fluctuating wages, loss of worker control, constant surveillance, unreasonable performance evaluations, automated punishment, and non-payment.
“Algorithmic management is used to determine work allocation and pay in ways that are typically opaque and often discriminatory,” the report reads. “Workers have to contend with intensive forms of surveillance which reduce autonomy and undermine privacy. Workers are evaluated in ways that are not transparent and with no opportunity for worker input.”
“Perhaps worst of all,” it continues, “workers face algorithmically-determined punishments, up to and including the loss of their job, sometimes without ever being able to communicate with a human boss.”
While algorithmic management is now built into precarious low-wage jobs such as ride hailing, warehouse labor, and cloudwork, it’s also being rapidly expanded to sectors like therapy, legal work, and healthcare. In other words, just because you’re not making a living off an app now, doesn’t mean you won’t be sometime in the future.
Fortunately, the ETUC offers solutions for fighting the AI panopticon. The first is a handy list of victories workers are already winning across the EU in places like Denmark, where the rent-a-maid app Hilfr agreed to give workers a comprehensive explanation for all algorithmically-determined decisions, building on previously negotiated dignities like a minimum wage and paid sick days.
For cases where the company isn’t so willing to share data about its systems, the report highlights tactics workers can use to crack the algorithm. These start with a polite request for company data according to EU data laws.
If that doesn’t work, there are less official methods to fall back on. These include the sock-puppet technique, where a gig worker creates multiple accounts to compare data against their main profile, reverse engineering, a more labor-intensive peak into the raw data, and “counter apps” like UberCheats, which are used to audit algorithmic management software.
Ultimately, the report concludes, fighting back against algorithmic management isn’t about “reinventing the wheel, it’s about adding on new spokes.”
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