In an "industry-first", a newly-approved union agreement covering editorial employees at news publications including Crikey and The Mandarin explicitly prohibits AI from replacing human employees and requires all output to have human oversight.
The Albanese Government has retreated from proposed mandatory "guardrails" in its national AI policy released today, relying instead on existing regulators to report any legislative gaps to the newly-formed AI Safety Institute.
As the Albanese Government revealed plans for an AI Safety Institute to harness productivity gains and combat "malign uses" of the new technology, a "confronting" report from the FSU champions the need for a digital "just transition" amid concerns about job security and surveillance in the finance sector.
Shadow IR minister Tim Wilson has made it clear that he is some way from releasing any Coalition IR policy, but has nevertheless indicated that it must address AI's looming "reset" to the way people work and underlined that he strongly favours WFH and workplace flexibility, after the disastrous pre-poll stance earlier this year.
Artificial intelligence "has its downsides" but has largely lifted the quality of self-represented litigants' submissions to the FWC, while improving their access to justice, a senior member told last week's NSW IR Society Newcastle branch annual conference
In a "major win" for the MEAA and copyright-holders, the Albanese Government has ruled out a "text and data mining exception" that would have enabled developers to use the work of Australian creators to train AI without permission or compensation, while the American union peak body is calling for a "worker-centric" approach to the technology.
AI-driven customer service aids such as chatbots are a "standard feature" in the private sector and government organisations like the FWC should be no different, according to its president, who is planning to roll out artificial intelligence to serve users more efficiently and at lower cost.
A court has found that a self-represented worker who drafted her submissions with assistance from artificial intelligence, which generated non-existent authorities, should not be subject to a security of costs order, despite the additional expenses the employer allegedly incurred.
Fast-growing HR and recruitment platform Employment Hero made a senior technical writer redundant after it replaced the content he produced for its online "help centre" with "automated workflows and AI", but the FWC has declined to extend time to allow him to pursue his unfair dismissal claim.
If unions lead the way, AI provides a "once-in-a-generation chance" to rebuild the middle class and restore dignity to workers that has been eroded by "decades of rising inequality and casualisation", Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh has told an ACTU AI symposium.
