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In 2017, UNI gave an intervention at the OECD conference "AI: Intelligent Machines, Smart Policies". The OECD has now linked to our work and published it on the OECD Forum.

At the conference we spoke of the Urgency of Now, of why we must ask ourselves what society we want, as everything imaginable, and even unimaginable, would technologically and digitally soon be possible. 

As the only voice representing workers, our speech was particularly concerned with workers' future employability and rights. 

This is about people

Christina Colclough elaborates: "All too often discussions on the future digital world neglect that this is all about people. We can discuss displacement in numbers, and we can discuss the benefits and challenges of Artificial Intelligence in general terms, but this is not enough. It is real workers out there who are already feeling the consequences of the transition to the digital economy. Workers are increasingly monitored at work, many jobs are becoming precarious as companies cut costs in the name of productivity, and more and more workers are left with few, if any, social and fundamental rights."

UNIs intervention urged the participants to put people and planet first, and to work with us in securing an ethical approach to AI and to workers' data rights.

Top Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights and Ethical AI

The speech was warmly welcomed, and has since led to new contacts and queries into our Top Ten Principles for Workers' Data Rights and Ethical AI.