AI mistakes: third of bosses would blame the worker


AI software might help you get your job done more quickly — but it might also give your boss another reason to dump on you. Because according to a survey, a third of managers believe that if the machine screws up, it’s the worker’s fault.

Ethical concerns around AI appear to have divided the business community, with 31.9% of decision makers saying they would “lay the blame solely on the employees operating the tool” if the machine performed under par.

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In contrast, just over one in four (26.1%) said they would apportion blame evenly between the AI, the worker using it, and themselves as managers, Tech.co found in its research.

Well, nobody ever said AI would solve the perennial problem of the lousy boss.

Business leaders were also found to be quite wary of adopting AI in the workplace, with around seven in ten stressing that employees should not use such tools without express permission of themselves or a middle manager.

The findings come as the US, EU, and UN join big tech firms like Microsoft in efforts to table guidelines for ethical use of AI, which have left the realms of science fiction to enter the mainstream in the wake of ChatGPT’s meteoric rise in popularity.

“While governments scramble to implement regulatory frameworks designed to govern the responsible research and development of AI systems, businesses are being presented with novel use cases every day that bring with them pertinent questions relating to employee transparency, privacy and individual responsibility,” said Tech.co spokesperson Aaron Drapkin.

He added: “There exists a myriad of ethical questions relating to AI systems that need immediate attention, spanning from the correct ways to conduct exploratory AI research to the appropriate maintenance and usage of AI tools.”

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