Labor law and artificial intelligence: Points of contact and differences

Abstract

The advent of high-tech and self-learning AI algorithms is setting off an unprecedented transformation of social production processes that will fundamentally affect the entire world of labor. According to the author, the introduction of AI into the world of labor will undoubtedly lead to a temporary surge in technological unemployment, but in the long term, new technologies will create more jobs in new sectors of the economy. The impact of AI on unemployment is context-specific and should be subject to government regulation. The author points out that as a result of the introduction of AI algorithms in the world of labor, arise not only the traditional problems of strengthening the economic power of the employer, discrimination or unauthorized collection of personal data, but set a big complex of legal problems related to the responsibility of the employer for decisions that he himself cannot control. Therefore, for labor law, the most important task is to eliminate the discrepancies between the current model of legal regulation of labor relations and the risks of introducing AI into decision-making processes of hiring and controlling employees. The science of labor law should develop relevant approaches to a reasonable limitation of the use of AI, taking into account the peculiarities of modern algorithmic technologies, production prospects, legal and social risks. The author criticizes proposals for endowing AI with legal personality and the possibility of delegating responsibility for the implementation of employer functions to algorithms. According to the author, AI cannot have legal personality in labor relations (as well as in legal relations of any other type), since the functioning of AI is carried out through the datification of all their participants without the goal of achieving a socially significant result and establishing interaction between subjects of law regarding the satisfaction of their needs. AI is a means of automating labor processes, a digital interface for interaction between elements of the production system. The author states that AI in legal reality can exist only as an object of law. The author proposes to fix in the labor legislation the presumption of responsibility of the employer for the decisions made by AI, regardless of the originally programmed algorithms, even if they were changed by AI as a result of machine learning.