“The current industrial revolution is invisible, immaterial and is taking place at a much faster rate. The risks of certain software are not readily apparent. Trade unions and workers have to keep a critical eye on all emerging technologies. We need to know how to ask concrete and useful questions,” says Aída Ponce del Castillo, pictured here.

(Marta Checa/Equal Times)

The disruptive potential of new technologies has been a constant throughout history. The main difference between the present moment and previous turning points is the speed with which changes are currently taking place (artificial intelligence, AI, specifically) and our inability to understand them (without study). This leads to a major imbalance between the developers of this new technology and the rest of the world. European Union lawmakers have begun the process of regulating AI. How do they plan to protect citizens, and more specifically workers, jobs and the environment?

We spoke with Aída Ponce del Castillo, a lawyer specialising in science and technology, and a PhD in Law and researcher at the European Trade Union Institute’s (ETUI) Foresight Unit, to find out how well equipped the current legislative proposal is to respond to the challenges of AI, let alone of the new technologies that will follow.

In case any doubts remain, if we are given a choice between ethics guidelines, self-regulation and developing targeted legislation, what should we insist upon when dealing with digitalisation, and...

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