Applying ethics to AI in the workplace: the design of a scorecard for Australian workplace health and safety

Andreas Cebulla; Zygmunt Szpak; Catherine Howell; Genevieve Knight; Sazzad Hussain

doi:10.1007/s00146-022-01460-9

Applying ethics to AI in the workplace: the design of a scorecard for Australian workplace health and safety

AI Soc. 2023;38(2):919-935. doi: 10.1007/s00146-022-01460-9. Epub 2022 May 13.

Authors

Andreas Cebulla¹, Zygmunt Szpak², Catherine Howell³, Genevieve Knight⁴, Sazzad Hussain⁵

Affiliations

¹ Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
² Australian Institute for Machine Learning, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
³ Independent Consultant, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
⁴ South Australian Centre for Economic Studies, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Work Health and Safety, Parramatta, NSW Australia.

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking centre stage in economic growth and business operations alike. Public discourse about the practical and ethical implications of AI has mainly focussed on the societal level. There is an emerging knowledge base on AI risks to human rights around data security and privacy concerns. A separate strand of work has highlighted the stresses of working in the gig economy. This prevailing focus on human rights and gig impacts has been at the expense of a closer look at how AI may be reshaping traditional workplace relations and, more specifically, workplace health and safety. To address this gap, we outline a conceptual model for developing an AI Work Health and Safety (WHS) Scorecard as a tool to assess and manage the potential risks and hazards to workers resulting from AI use in a workplace. A qualitative, practice-led research study of AI adopters was used to generate and test a novel list of potential AI risks to worker health and safety. Risks were identified after cross-referencing Australian AI Ethics Principles and Principles of Good Work Design with AI ideation, design and implementation stages captured by the AI Canvas, a framework otherwise used for assessing the commercial potential of AI to a business. The unique contribution of this research is the development of a novel matrix itemising currently known or anticipated risks to the WHS and ethical aspects at each AI adoption stage.

Keywords: AI Canvas; Australia; Ethics principles; Risk assessment; WHS/OHS; Workers.