The increasing use of artificial intelligence in companies poses numerous new challenges for works councils. In addition to the emergence of new professional fields and the development of new competencies, potential risks such as discrimination, explainability of results, deception through manipulation and the design of the cooperation of employees with artificial intelligence are central challenges. Through the research approach, the participating works councils acquire the know-how to understand and critically question the development and implementation of applications in the field of artificial intelligence in the company and to increasingly bring the interests of employees into the process. They are to be provided with tools for assessing the operational purpose of use, for an operational risk assessment of the planned AI application, but also a checklist for assessing the change in working conditions when using AI and human-machine interaction, and thus to have opportunities to intervene in order to safeguard existing co-determination rights. Furthermore, basic knowledge about European and national frameworks of trustworthy/human-centered AI will be provided.
Due to the diverse composition of the project team and the application-oriented research design, a contribution is made to the focus area "Change in the world of work", in particular to the project fields "New (digital) organizational forms of work and co-determination" and "Automation, robotics and artificial intelligence".
The project is funded by the Chamber of Labour for Lower Austria (Arbeiterkammer Niederösterreich).
