AI and the Right to Work

When we look at AI and the universal Human Rights Declaration, specifically Article 23 and 25 - interesting questions are raised.

💡 The Right to Work - Universal Human Rights (Art 23) - this states every human being has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. 

💡 Further it states: Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

💡 Art 25 states: Every one has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

When countries endorse the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the organizations in their country whether for profit or not also do need to ensure that they will reflect these in their values.

There are two narratives about AI 

🛜 AI is creating new jobs: However, the challenge is that these new jobs are short-lived like prompt engineering and it is tough to predict causing much uncertainty.

🛜 Job destroyer - AI is replacing jobs: Actually it is human beings taking the decision to replace human jobs with AI.

I am more worried about the human talent pipeline (see diagram below). This means governments and private sector need to work together as this insecurity in job markets will lead to rising pension and social security costs, societal depression, intense pressure on fresh graduates who will find employment difficult for their specialization, pressure on breadwinners who need to ensure a standard of living for their families and savings for their old age and finally we may have an obsolescence of skills (see my previous post on data).