Amid a debate and concern over Artificial Intelligence possibly rendering people jobless, the GPAI Future of Work (FoW) Working Group said it is working on building a curriculum to help workers who face the maximum risk of being replaced by AI. At the session called ‘Future of Work Working Group’ on the second day of the three-day-long GPAI Summit 2023 being held in Delhi, Dr Matthias Peissner, Director, Head of Research Area Human-Technology Interaction, Fraunhofer IAO, Germany, said the research would focus on 3,000 workers, likely from the automotive sector. 

“The idea is to develop a curriculum to upskill workers, whose jobs are redundant and who face the maximum risk. We are planning to create a model that can be replicated and scaled up. If all members of the working group come together, I believe we can get this right,” he added. 

Peissner revealed that the group is working on another project, one that focuses on reducing the burden on medical infrastructure through AI. “We are going to do lab experiments in the Netherlands, Tanzania and Indonesia. As a part of the experiment, we would give general practitioners fictional case studies and ask them to come up with a diagnosis. The hope is that by the end of this experiment, we would have substantial answers about how can generative AI be used to help medical practitioners,” he explained. 

Notably, this Working Group is mandated to analyze how the deployment of AI can affect the working environments and the workers as well as how workers and employers can better design the future of work in such a way as to preserve or even improve job quality, inclusiveness, and health and safety at the workplace. In 2023, the Working Group proposed to continue to strengthen its efforts on its three current projects “Observation Platform of AI in the Workplace”, “Fair Work for AI” and “AI Living Laboratory”. These projects are also dedicated to responding to the workforce's rise to competence because of the changes that AI will bring to the workplace.

In one of its earlier reports, this group highlighted that unlike previous AI developments which focused on automating narrow tasks, Generative AI models possess the scope, versatility, and economic viability to impact jobs across multiple industries and at varying skill levels. Their ability to produce human-like outputs in areas like language, content creation and customer interaction, combined with rapid advancement and low deployment costs, suggest potential near-term impacts that are much broader and more abrupt than prior waves of AI. It also called on governments, companies, and social partners to minimize any potential negative effects from Generative AI technology in the world of work and harness potential opportunities to support productivity growth and decent work. 

In the latest session, Fernando Schapachnik, FoW Expert and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, said he is not too optimistic about AI’s effect on the future of the workforce. “I would like to cite the example of secretaries. In the 1950s, they had to physically meet people to make appointments. Technology was supposed to increase their productivity. But I now ask, do they have more free time? Are they paid better? They brushed up their skills but did this give them an advantage in the labour market,” he questioned.

Wading into the debate about how the workforce can be affected by AI, Lucía Velasco, Policy Fellow at the School of Transnational Governance European University Institute (EUI), Spain, said the debate can’t be coloured into black and white. “We have to consider several factors...We need to think are we just pushing technology towards society or is it benefitting the workers…These complex questions need complex answers,” she added. 

Meanwhile, Mexico Senator Aljendra Lagunnes, who joined the session virtually, said there’s a need to change labour dynamics, upskill workers and legislation with follow-ups to protect the workforce from negative impacts of AI. She also highlighted that there’s a need to have equity in tech. “With Mexico going to Presidential elections next year, this GPAI alliance would turn out to be more crucial than ever. I also invite GPAI to hold the next summit in Mexico,” she said.