An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI
The continuous and rapid development of AI-based systems comes along with an increase in automation of tasks and, therewith, a qualitative shift in opportunities and challenges for occupational safety and health. A fundamental aspect of humane working conditions is the ability to exert influence ove...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2022.868382/full |
| _version_ | 1818118893742325760 |
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| author | Susanne Niehaus Matthias Hartwig Patricia H. Rosen Sascha Wischniewski |
| author_facet | Susanne Niehaus Matthias Hartwig Patricia H. Rosen Sascha Wischniewski |
| author_sort | Susanne Niehaus |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The continuous and rapid development of AI-based systems comes along with an increase in automation of tasks and, therewith, a qualitative shift in opportunities and challenges for occupational safety and health. A fundamental aspect of humane working conditions is the ability to exert influence over different aspects of one's own work. Consequently, stakeholders contribute to the prospect of maintaining the workers' autonomy albeit increasing automation and summarize this aspiration with the human in control principle. Job control has been part of multiple theories and models within the field of occupational psychology. However, most of the models do not include specific technical considerations nor focus on task but rather on job level. That is, they are possibly not able to fully explain specific changes regarding the digitalization of tasks. According to the results of a large-scale study on German workers (DiWaBe), this seems to be the case to some extend: the influence of varying degrees of automation, moderated by perceived autonomy, on workers' wellbeing was not consistent. However, automation is a double-edged sword: on a high level, it can be reversely related to the workers' job control while highly autonomous and reliable systems can also create opportunities for more flexible, impactful and diverse working tasks. Consequently, automation can foster and decrease the factor of job control. Models about the optimal level of automation aim to give guidelines on how the former can be achieved. The results of the DiWaBe study indicate that automation in occupational practice does not always happen in line with these models. Instead, a substantial part of automation happens at the decision-making level, while executive actions remain with the human. From an occupational safety and health perspective, it is therefore crucial to closely monitor and anticipate the implementation of AI in working systems. Constellations where employees are too controlled by technology and are left with a high degree of demands and very limited resources should be avoided. Instead, it would be favorable to use AI as an assistance tool for the employees, helping them to gather and process information and assisting them in decision-making. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T05:01:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-883922a82f9c4e1aa09c03eef5287c6d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-8212 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T05:01:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence |
| spelling | doaj.art-883922a82f9c4e1aa09c03eef5287c6d2022-12-22T01:20:08ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence2624-82122022-07-01510.3389/frai.2022.868382868382An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AISusanne NiehausMatthias HartwigPatricia H. RosenSascha WischniewskiThe continuous and rapid development of AI-based systems comes along with an increase in automation of tasks and, therewith, a qualitative shift in opportunities and challenges for occupational safety and health. A fundamental aspect of humane working conditions is the ability to exert influence over different aspects of one's own work. Consequently, stakeholders contribute to the prospect of maintaining the workers' autonomy albeit increasing automation and summarize this aspiration with the human in control principle. Job control has been part of multiple theories and models within the field of occupational psychology. However, most of the models do not include specific technical considerations nor focus on task but rather on job level. That is, they are possibly not able to fully explain specific changes regarding the digitalization of tasks. According to the results of a large-scale study on German workers (DiWaBe), this seems to be the case to some extend: the influence of varying degrees of automation, moderated by perceived autonomy, on workers' wellbeing was not consistent. However, automation is a double-edged sword: on a high level, it can be reversely related to the workers' job control while highly autonomous and reliable systems can also create opportunities for more flexible, impactful and diverse working tasks. Consequently, automation can foster and decrease the factor of job control. Models about the optimal level of automation aim to give guidelines on how the former can be achieved. The results of the DiWaBe study indicate that automation in occupational practice does not always happen in line with these models. Instead, a substantial part of automation happens at the decision-making level, while executive actions remain with the human. From an occupational safety and health perspective, it is therefore crucial to closely monitor and anticipate the implementation of AI in working systems. Constellations where employees are too controlled by technology and are left with a high degree of demands and very limited resources should be avoided. Instead, it would be favorable to use AI as an assistance tool for the employees, helping them to gather and process information and assisting them in decision-making.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2022.868382/fullhuman in controlAI-based systemsoccupational safety and health (OSH)human factorsrobotic systemsICT |
| spellingShingle | Susanne Niehaus Matthias Hartwig Patricia H. Rosen Sascha Wischniewski An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence human in control AI-based systems occupational safety and health (OSH) human factors robotic systems ICT |
| title | An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI |
| title_full | An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI |
| title_fullStr | An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI |
| title_short | An Occupational Safety and Health Perspective on Human in Control and AI |
| title_sort | occupational safety and health perspective on human in control and ai |
| topic | human in control AI-based systems occupational safety and health (OSH) human factors robotic systems ICT |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2022.868382/full |
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