Sharing responsibilities along the AI lifecycle: Towards a responsible labour AI regulatory regime

The regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in the workplace has emerged as a critical focus in the field of labour law. From a legal responsibilities perspective, much of the literature emphasizes the responsibilities of employers to safeguard employment rights and address work-related issues arising from the integration of these systems into the workplace. This emphasis includes ensuring that humans remain “in the loop” to oversee algorithmic processes and examining the role of unions in “negotiating the algorithm” with employers. Moreover, various countries and international organizations are enacting regulations that impose legal responsibilities on technology actors to uphold human rights, including specific labour rights and broader work-related concerns, such as algorithmic management. The main argument of this Chapter is that without seriously considering the AI lifecycle in terms of work and the network of actors within this lifecycle, these two domains of legal responsibility—those governing employment relationships, whether individual or collective—and those applied to technology actors of AI systems—are unable to promote a legal regime that takes labour consideration seriously. By closely examining the AI lifecycle and existing regulation at the EU level, the Chapter proposes new directions of thought on how the regulation of employment relations and that of actors along the AI lifecycle can be interconnected and shared.