Egenis seminar (hybrid) with Dr Kate Vrendenburgh (London School of Economics)
AI, Worker Autonomy, and Science
What is autonomy at work? Philosophical accounts emphasize sovereignty or control over one’s work. We argue that sovereignty or control are insufficient in a world in which AI - especially AI agents - permeates the workplace. Workers who work with AI may have control while lacking what we call standing: the position from which one can author work decisions and answer for them. We develop this account through ameliorative conceptual analysis, asking what concept of work autonomy best serves the normative purposes that make autonomy worth caring about. Standing, we argue, comprises two interconnected elements: authorship and answerability. Our analysis is informed by 100 qualitative interviews with IT professionals and data scientists whose work is already transformed by AI. This empirical grounding helps us identify the normative interests of workers under threat as AI agents enter the workplace. We then defend the relevance of this account for normative theorizing about the use of AI in science. The permissibility and desirability of using AI in science should not only be judged by its generation of epistemic goods, or its creation of downstream harms and benefits. Scientists too have an interest in remaining the authors of their work, and answerable for it.
Venue: Byrne House, University of Exeter (spaces limited)
Virtual: via Zoom
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Egenis seminar (hybrid) with Dr Kate Vrendenburgh (London School of Economics)
AI, Worker Autonomy, and Science
What is autonomy at work? Philosophical accounts emphasize sovereignty or control over one’s work. We argue that sovereignty or control are insufficient in a world in which AI - especially AI agents - permeates the workplace. Workers who work with AI may have control while lacking what we call standing: the position from which one can author work decisions and answer for them. We develop this account through ameliorative conceptual analysis, asking what concept of work autonomy best serves the normative purposes that make autonomy worth caring about. Standing, we argue, comprises two interconnected elements: authorship and answerability. Our analysis is informed by 100 qualitative interviews with IT professionals and data scientists whose work is already transformed by AI. This empirical grounding helps us identify the normative interests of workers under threat as AI agents enter the workplace. We then defend the relevance of this account for normative theorizing about the use of AI in science. The permissibility and desirability of using AI in science should not only be judged by its generation of epistemic goods, or its creation of downstream harms and benefits. Scientists too have an interest in remaining the authors of their work, and answerable for it.
Venue: Byrne House, University of Exeter (spaces limited)
Virtual: via Zoom
Data Protection and Privacy
- To aid organisation of this event, attendee information may be shared with relevant staff in the University e.g. a list of attendees could be provided to the University host, guest speaker.
- We will store your information securely, so that we can communicate to you about the event (e.g. cancellation of event, changes to the itinerary, a satisfaction survey).
- We delete our access to personal information on Eventbrite after 6 months.
- More information on the University’s privacy policies can be found here.
- For more information on Eventbrite’s own privacy policy, please visit this page.
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Highlights
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- In-person
Location
Byrne House
Saint German's Road
Exeter EX4 4PJ
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