UTAW-CWU Response to the Government’s white paper on AI Regulation
We direct colleagues attention to the attached PDF, which has been submitted today by the UTAW national branch in response to the Government’s policy paper titled “A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation”.
As both tech workers and trade unionists, we’ve a unique insight in to the developments of AI behind the marketing hype, and we’ve been putting together content regarding AI’s development and its effects on employees, their rights, and the future of work. The government approach proposed, predictably underplays the significant risks posed by AI in order to “foster innovation” – which as we know from previous Conservative governments is a thinly veiled codeword for handing the responsibility of regulation to a profit-driven market with no incentive to self-regulate.
As a union for tech workers, we want to make sure we’re not only part of the conversation, but at the forefront of ensuring that unions have powers to scrutinise AI in the workplace such as automated decision-making (for example, based on employee surveillance) and ensure that workers have access to the kind of transparency that removes the risks of avaricious employers taking advantage of low-regulation technology.
Yours sincerely,
John Chadfield
Branch Secretary, UTAW
UTAW_Response_to_Government_White_Paper_on_AI_Regulation_FINAL
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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