Skills, Artificial Intelligence and Labour (SKAIL)

Project Overview

Skills, Artificial Intelligence and labour (SKAIL), Jan 2020-Sept 2020, Funder: Volkswagen Foundation

The development and embedding of artificial intelligence (AI) in workplaces is transforming the nature of work and skills. The implications of the emergent AI-based work practices for workers’ skill enhancement are not well understood. The proposed project addresses this gap by (1) analysing the challenges of emerging AI systems for work practices; (2) examining skill requirements for different groups of workers interacting with AI (AI preparers, developers and users); and (3) developing criteria for the design of skill-enhancing AI systems, focusing on transparency and explainability. These goals are addressed through research in three testbeds (cases): (i) microworkers, who process and label the big datasets underpinning AI algorithms (AI preparers); (ii) specialists who develop the AI algorithms and applications (AI developers), and (iii) workers who use the AI in their workplace (AI users). In the planning stage, the consortium will conduct three interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral workshops. The workshops will bring together researchers from Social Sciences, Engineering and Information Systems with representatives of industry, professional bodies, and institutions of higher and vocational education to map out the issues and gaps related to the three goals above. 

 Consortium

• Professor Martin Krzywdzinsky
  Principal Investigator
  Social Sciences Research Centre Berlin (WZB)
   
• Professor Anoush Margaryan
  Co-Investigator
  Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School
   
• Professor David Guile
  Co-Investigator
  Institute of Education, University College London
   
• Professor Christian Meske
  Co-Investigator
  Department of Information Systems, Free University of Berlin
   
• Dr Miguel Rodrigues
  Co-Investigator
  Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London
   

Publications