UNIONS must act now to stop employers turning AI into a job-killing catastrophe, Unite policy conference agreed today.

Moving composite 1, London & Eastern’s Wayne Morgan warned that “during the pandemic Cloud technology didn’t just allow many workers to work from home — it allowed employers to collect data from their workforce on a scale, in both detail and volume, never before imagined.”

Though robots are the “most obvious physical manifestation of making human labour redundant, they are not even close to being the main job killers — which are algorithms,” he pointed out.

“Algorithms are code containing previous human functionality which run automated systems that no longer require workers.

“We humans like to believe we have a right to exist, but we don’t have a right to work in a digital age where we have failed to regulate, control or protect workers. Regulation... must be subject to consultation, negotiation, transparency and governance in ethics — including being free from discriminatory bias,” he said, referring to recent findings that automated systems discriminate on grounds of race and sex.

Taj Salam from the North East, Yorkshire & Humber said AI threatened 90,000 jobs in transport and called for a “just transition” plan for AI as unions demand a green industrial revolution. Other speakers addressed the impact of automation on retail, in banking and in public services.

North West delegate Gavin Oliphant said that history served as a warning not to trust employer promises that AI would free up workers to perform higher-value tasks.

“In the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, whatever, those are the promises that were made and the reality was working people left to starve in the streets.”