The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is linked to many expectations and has enormous effects on our work life. AI should not only lead to more efficiency, it should also increasingly complement human knowledge and change “knowledge work” – a field that processes complex areas and thus generates new knowledge.
AI requires new expertise
"Knowledge work involves problem-solving skills and requires the combination of existing knowledge based on expericence and new, practical knowledge. AI can make a constructive contribution here, whether in IT, education, medicine or journalism," explains project leader Stefan Strauß from the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
"However, in order to actually tap into this added value constructively, we need a completely new critical technical competence in companies in dealing with AI-based technologies," he emphasises. Because our knowledge about the technology also influences its practical use: "If we don't know enough about the functionalities, possibilities and limits of the technologies we work with, we run the risk of trusting them 'blindly'." Technical complexity and lack of transparency could lead to people no longer being able to understand and correctly interpret procedures and decision-making processes, says Strauß.
Experts call for more transparency
The research project, funded by the Austrian Chamber of Labour's Digitisation Fund Work 4.0, is therefore investigating how working practices in knowledge work are changing and is developing solutions to strengthen critical technical competence for the responsible use of AI-based technologies (Critical AI Literacy).
In a workshop on 21 March, experts from the field of work and technology discussed the associated challenges. The participants agreed that the oftentimes slow and unnoticed introduction of AI-based technologies makes it difficult to assess their opportunities and risks in companies. In order to objectify the discourse, both decision-makers and employees would need more knowledge about the real benefits and limits of such technologies.