By akademiotoelektronik, 17/04/2022

A look back at the creation of LaborIA to better measure the impact of AI in companies

On November 19, Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Labour, Employment and Integration went to the Matrice innovation institute to sign an agreement with Bruno Sportisse from Inria and create a laboratory dedicated to 'artificial intelligence. Called LaborIA, operated by Matrice, this resource and experimentation center will have the mission of “better understanding artificial intelligence and its effects on work, employment, skills and social dialogue in order to develop the practices of undertakings such as public action”.

According to the OECD's 2019 Employment Outlook report, medium-skilled jobs are increasingly exposed to profound transformations. Over the next 15 to 20 years, the development of automation could lead to the disappearance of 14% of current jobs, and an additional 32% are likely to be profoundly transformed.

Supporting AI transformations at work

The report states that the future of work is in our hands and will depend, to a large extent, on the public policy choices that countries make. It is the nature of these policies, and our ability to harness the potential of unprecedented digital and technological change while addressing the challenges they pose, that will determine our success or failure.

It is in this context that the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Integration and Inria are joining forces to create a resource and experimentation center on artificial intelligence in the professional environment with the aim of support these transformations and prepare companies and employees for them.

LaborIA should make it possible to better understand artificial intelligence and its impact on work, employment, skills and social dialogue, with the aim of changing business practices and public action.

Elisabeth Borne said:

An initiative in line with the PMIA

This trip follows the second summit of the PMIA (the global partnership for AI or GPAI in English) which was held in Paris on November 11 and 12, 2021. The PMIA is the culmination of an idea developed within the G7, under the Canadian and French presidencies. It was launched in 2020 by 15 founding member states.

Today the 25 members of the PMIA are Germany, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Republic of Korea, Denmark, Spain, United States, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden and European Union .

This initiative aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities. This latest summit brought together international AI experts from civil society, academia, industry and government, including ministerial delegates from PMIA members. They presented the results of their group work and discussed the responsible development of AI.

One of the working groups is devoted to the theme: Future of work. It is affiliated with the Paris PMIA Center of Expertise, hosted by INRIA. Among other things, he conducts analyzes on how AI affects and will affect workers and their environment. The creation of LaborIA responds to the recommendations of the group dedicated to the future of work and is part of the National Strategy for AI

The LaborIA program

The LaborIA program must first consider the relationship of companies and public actors to artificial intelligence, then, in a second step, deploy concrete experiments, in the workplace, concerning various themes: working conditions, recruitment , development of skills, technological social dialogue, etc.

It also aims to create a place for debate and exchange between all civil society actors, social partners and public decision-makers. Lasting five years, LaborIA is funded by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Integration and operated by Matrice, Center for training and retraining for digital professions and entrepreneurship. His areas of work:

The challenges of AI on jobs and skills

The development of artificial intelligence leads to the automation of a large number of tasks and will therefore change jobs and companies. This major technological transition could thus impact the majority of workers and in particular the most vulnerable populations, concerned by professions whose tasks could be automated. There is a digital divide in access to new technologies, which generates inequalities based on age, gender and socioeconomic status.

In any case, AI should also lead to a new distribution of work between man and machine, generating new jobs and based on new skills. It is this complementarity between man and machine which, according to Cédric Villani, is at the heart of the priorities. It would benefit from being developed around two objectives: being healthy (particularly with regard to ethical issues) and enabling human beings to develop their skills.

Mirroring the 4 criteria defining the automatable nature of a task, it is possible to define the skills to be developed in order to move towards an enabling human-machine complementarity:

These transformations and their consequences must be anticipated.