Yann Ferguson is a sociologist at ICAM and scientific manager of LaborIA, a laboratory launched in 2021 under the aegis of the Ministry of Labor to study the effects of artificial intelligence on working conditions.
What ethical issues does the use of artificial intelligence (AI) pose in business?
AI can contribute to a very insidious alienation, not necessarily by telling me what to do, but by giving me the framework for my thinking. To what extent can we let a system make a decision for which we do not understand the reason? Europe is seeking to establish an ethical framework for the use of AI so that it engenders trust. For certain so-called “high-risk” applications, such as the detection of cancer, the system must therefore be “explicable”, ie provide access to the reasons for its diagnosis. We do not yet know how to do this well: it complicates the models, increases the computing power required and therefore the carbon footprint.
Is there not an irrational rejection of AI, which would call into question our superiority?
It must be recognized that AI touches on something that has long been considered unique to humans, logical or Cartesian intelligence. We like to think that this is the reason that gives us superiority over other living beings. But we realize that we do not exercise this domination with great benevolence. We therefore wonder what will happen if a form of superior intelligence emerges, if it will not make us suffer what we do to other living beings. On the contrary, the advent of AI could be an opportunity to enhance other major intelligences: relational, emotional, musical, kinesthetic…
The optimistic scenario says that AI will free the worker from their most alienating tasks. What do we see on the ground?
For now, there are very few massive job cuts related to AI, rather a reflection on the human at work. We wonder about its meaning, we wonder how to maintain fulfilling work with all this technology that is coming. We have to see what will happen over time. Sometimes it will be admitted that the AI will do relatively less well than the human. But companies could, in the name of efficiency?, favor a less efficient but less expensive solution.
What is left for the human being?
We still have to put our sensible knowledge of the world into this system. An AI does not have the awareness and experience of what a yogurt or a car is. The theory says that three main families of intelligences will remain specific to human beings: complex precision work, that of the craftsman or worker in unstructured environments; creative intelligence and finally relational intelligence. But these categories need to be clarified. It is necessary to analyze each activity in depth to define what can or cannot be delegated to an AI.