Uber and Uber Eats gig workers who appear to have used generative AI to challenge their deactivations have failed to win extra time to pursue unfair dismissal applications they lodged five to seven years late.
A judge has fired a shot across the bow of litigants relying on "sycophantic" AI to run their cases, observing that a delivery driver alleging adverse action came "perilously close" to being held in contempt after failing to produce evidence found to be either mischaracterised or non-existent.
The "unprecedented" AI-driven rise in the FWC's caseload has now pushed average clearance rates up from less than four weeks to more than six weeks, and while the Commission is taking action to respond, it concedes it would be easier to "catch the wind" than to curb the technology.
An academic says employers' use of multi-functional AI systems without including HR and workers in decision-making is handing power to algorithms, tech vendors and IT teams, creating far-reaching "unintended consequences".
Speakers at an IR conference have emphasised the importance of early, transparent consultations when introducing automation and AI-related change, but a lawyer says locking into a formal process too soon is risky.
In new guidance on the use of generative AI, the Federal Court sets out obligations for practitioners, and warns that breaches can lead to adverse costs orders.
Existing AI technologies could boost labour productivity growth in Australia to levels last seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to a leading AI developer.
A senior FWC member has told an employer he would "welcome" a costs application after rejecting an AI-assisted general protections bid in which a worker relied on "incoherent" legal arguments and falsehoods to reframe his resignation as a constructive dismissal.
An "obstinate" worker's "barrage" of lengthy AI-generated "dense, repetitive and often rambling" emails and refusal to accept that his employer had resolved his complaints warranted his dismissal, the FWC has ruled.
