Why we’re fighting to make sure labor unions have a voice in how AI is implemented

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Liz Shuler and Mike Kubzansky: “Earlier this month, Google’s co-founder admitted that the company had “definitely messed up” after its AI tool, Gemini, produced historically inaccurate images—including depictions of racially diverse Nazis. Sergey Brin cited a lack of “thorough testing” of the AI tool, but the incident is a good reminder that, despite all the hype around generative AI replacing human output, the technology still has a long way to go. 

Of course, that hasn’t stopped companies from deploying AI in the workplace. Some even use the technology as an excuse to lay workers off. Since last May, at least 4,000 people have lost their jobs to AI, and 70% of workers across the country live with the fear that AI is coming for theirs next. And while the technology may still be in its infancy, it’s developing fast. Earlier this year, AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman said that “left completely to the market and to their own devices, [AI tools are] fundamentally labor-replacing.” Without changes now, AI could be coming to replace a lot of people’s jobs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. AI has enormous potential to build prosperity and unleash human creativity, but only if it also works for working people. Ensuring that happens requires giving the voice of workers—the people who will engage with these technologies every day, and whose lives, health, and livelihoods are increasingly affected by AI and automation—a seat at the decision-making table. 

As president of the AFL-CIO, representing 12.5 million working people across 60 unions, and CEO of Omidyar Network, a social change philanthropy that supports responsible technology, we believe that the single best movement to give everyone a voice is the labor movement. Empowering workers—from warehouse associates to software engineers—is the most powerful tactic we have to ensure that AI develops in the interests of the many, not the few…(More)”.

Monitoring global trade using data on vessel traffic

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Graham Pilgrim, Emmanuelle Guidetti and Annabelle Mourougane: “Rising uncertainties and geo-political tensions, together with more complex trade relations have increased the demand for data and tools to monitor global trade in a timely manner. At the same time, advances in Big Data Analytics and access to a huge quantity of alternative data – outside the realm of official statistics – have opened new avenues to monitor trade. These data can help identify bottlenecks and disruptions in real time but need to be cleaned and validated.

One such alternative data source is the Automatic Identification System (AIS), developed by the International Maritime Organisation, facilitating the tracking of vessels across the globe. The system includes messages transmitted by ships to land or satellite receivers, available in quasi real time. While it was primarily designed to ensure vessel safety, this data is particularly well suited for providing insights on trade developments, as over 80% in volume of international merchandise trade is carried by sea (UNCTAD, 2022). Furthermore, AIS data holds granular vessel information and detailed location data, which combined with other data sources can enable the identification of activity at a port (or even berth) level, by vessel type or by the jurisdiction of vessel ownership.

For a number of years, the UN Global Platform has made AIS data available to those compiling official statistics, such as National Statistics Offices (NSOs) or International Organisations. This has facilitated the development of new methodologies, for instance the automated identification of port locations (Irish Central Statistics Office, 2022). The data has also been exploited by data scientists and research centres to monitor trade in specific commodities such as Liquefied Natural Gas (QuantCube Technology, 2022) or to analyse port and shipping operations in a specific country (Tsalamanis et al., 2018). Beyond trade, the dataset has been used to track CO2 emissions from the maritime sector (Clarke et al., 2023).

New work from the OECD Statistics and Data Directorate contributes to existing research in this field in two major ways. First, it proposes a new methodology to identify ports, at a higher level of precision than in past research. Second, it builds indicators to monitor port congestion and trends in maritime trade flows and provides a tool to get detailed information and better understand those flows…(More)”.

Digital public infrastructure and public value: What is ‘public’ about DPI?

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by David Eaves, Mariana Mazzucato and Beatriz Vasconcellos: “Digital Public Infrastructures (DPI) are becoming increasingly relevant in the policy and academic domains, with DPI not just being regulated, but funded and created by governments, international organisations, philanthropies and the private sector. However, these transformations are not neutral; they have a direction. This paper addresses how to ensure that DPI is not only regulated but created and governed for the common good by maximising public value creation. Our analysis makes explicit which normative values may be associated with DPI development. We also argue that normative values are necessary but not sufficient for maximising public value creation with DPI, and that a more proactive role of the state and governance are key. In this work, policymakers and researchers will find valuable frameworks for understanding where the value-creation elements of DPI come from and how to design a DPI governance that maximises public value…(More)”.

Influence of public innovation laboratories on the development of public sector ambidexterity

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Christophe Favoreu et al: “Ambidexterity has become a major issue for public organizations as they manage increasingly strong contradictory pressures to optimize existing processes while innovating. Moreover, although public innovation laboratories are emerging, their influence on the development of ambidexterity remains largely unexplored. Our research aims to understand how innovation laboratories contribute to the formation of individual ambidexterity within the public sector. Drawing from three case studies, this research underscores the influence of these labs on public ambidexterity through the development of innovations by non-specialized actors and the deployment and reuse of innovative managerial practices and techniques outside the i-labs…(More)”.

Responsible Data Re-use in Developing Countries: Social Licence through Public Engagement

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by Stefaan Verhulst, Laura Sandor, Natalia Mejia Pardo, Elena Murray and Peter Addo: “The datafication era has transformed the technological landscape, digitizing multiple areas of human life and offering opportunities for societal progress through the re-use of digital data. Developing countries stand to benefit from datafication but are faced with challenges like insufficient data quality and limited infrastructure. One of the primary obstacles to unlocking data re-use lies in agency asymmetries—disparities in decision-making authority among stakeholders—which fuel public distrust. Existing consent frameworks amplify the challenge, as they are individual-focused, lack information, and fail to address the nuances of data re-use. To address these limitations, a Social License for re-use becomes imperative—a community-focused approach that fosters responsible data practices and benefits all stakeholders. This shift is crucial for establishing trust and collaboration, and bridging the gap between institutions, governments, and citizens…(More)”.

Untapped

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

About: “Twenty-first century collective intelligence- combining people’s knowledge and skills, new forms of data and increasingly, technology – has the untapped potential to transform the way we understand and act on climate change.

Collective intelligence for climate action in the Global South takes many forms: from crowdsourcing of indigenous knowledge to preserve biodiversity to participatory monitoring of extreme heat and farmer experiments adapting crops to weather variability.

This research analyzes 100+ climate case studies across 45 countries that tap into people’s participation and use new forms of data. This research illustrates the potential that exists in communities everywhere to contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. It also aims to shine a light on practical ways in which these initiatives could be designed and further developed so this potential can be fully unleashed…(More)”.

Central banks use AI to assess climate-related risks

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Huw Jones: “Central bankers said on Tuesday they have broken new ground by using artificial intelligence to collect data for assessing climate-related financial risks, just as the volume of disclosures from banks and other companies is set to rise.

The Bank for International Settlements, a forum for central banks, the Bank of Spain, Germany’s Bundesbank and the European Central Bank said their experimental Gaia AI project was used to analyse company disclosures on carbon emissions, green bond issuance and voluntary net-zero commitments.

Regulators of banks, insurers and asset managers need high-quality data to assess the impact of climate-change on financial institutions. However, the absence of a single reporting standard confronts them with a patchwork of public information spread across text, tables and footnotes in annual reports.

Gaia was able to overcome differences in definitions and disclosure frameworks across jurisdictions to offer much-needed transparency, and make it easier to compare indicators on climate-related financial risks, the central banks said in a joint statement.

Despite variations in how the same data is reported by companies, Gaia focuses on the definition of each indicator, rather than how the data is labelled.

Furthermore, with the traditional approach, each additional key performance indicator, or KPI, and each new institution requires the analyst to either search for the information in public corporate reports or contact the institution for information…(More)”.

The Wisdom of Partisan Crowds: Comparing Collective Intelligence in Humans and LLM-based Agents

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Yun-Shiuan Chuang et al: “Human groups are able to converge to more accurate beliefs through deliberation, even in the presence of polarization and partisan bias – a phenomenon known as the “wisdom of partisan crowds.” Large Language Models (LLMs) agents are increasingly being used to simulate human collective behavior, yet few benchmarks exist for evaluating their dynamics against the behavior of human groups. In this paper, we examine the extent to which the wisdom of partisan crowds emerges in groups of LLM-based agents that are prompted to role-play as partisan personas (e.g., Democrat or Republican). We find that they not only display human-like partisan biases, but also converge to more accurate beliefs through deliberation, as humans do. We then identify several factors that interfere with convergence, including the use of chain-of-thought prompting and lack of details in personas. Conversely, fine-tuning on human data appears to enhance convergence. These findings show the potential and limitations of LLM-based agents as a model of human collective intelligence…(More)”

God-like: A 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Kester Brewin: “In the year 1600 a monk is burned at the stake for claiming to have built a device that will allow him to know all things.

350 years later, having witnessed ‘Trinity’ – the first test of the atomic bomb – America’s leading scientist outlines a memory machine that will help end war on earth.

25 years in the making, an ex-soldier finally unveils this ‘machine for augmenting human intellect’, dazzling as he stands ‘Zeus-like, dealing lightning with both hands.’

AI is both stunningly new and rooted in ancient desires. As we finally welcome this ‘god-like’ technology amongst us, what can learn from the myths and monsters of the past about how to survive alongside our greatest ever invention?…(More)”.

Bring on the Policy Entrepreneurs

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Erica Goldman: “Teaching early-career researchers the skills to engage in the policy arena could prepare them for a lifetime of high-impact engagement and invite new perspectives into the democratic process.

In the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific literature worldwide was flooded with research articles, letters, reviews, notes, and editorials related to the virus. One study estimates that a staggering 23,634 unique documents were published between January 1 and June 30, 2020, alone.

Making sense of that emerging science was an urgent challenge. As governments all over the world scrambled to get up-to-date guidelines to hospitals and information to an anxious public, Australia stood apart in its readiness to engage scientists and decisionmakers collaboratively. The country used what was called a “living evidence” approach to synthesizing new information, making it available—and helpful—in real time.

Each week during the pandemic, the Australian National COVID‑19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce came together to evaluate changes in the scientific literature base. They then spoke with a single voice to the Australian clinical community so clinicians had rapid, evidence-based, and nationally agreed-upon guidelines to provide the clarity they needed to care for people with COVID-19.

This new model for consensus-aligned, evidence-based decisionmaking helped Australia navigate the pandemic and build trust in the scientific enterprise, but it did not emerge overnight. It took years of iteration and effort to get the living evidence model ready to meet the moment; the crisis of the pandemic opened a policy window that living evidence was poised to surge through. Australia’s example led the World Health Organization and the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to move toward making living evidence models a pillar of decisionmaking for all their health care guidelines. On its own, this is an incredible story, but it also reveals a tremendous amount about how policies get changed…(More)”.