At WEF in Davos, UNI General Secretary calls for urgent action on AI inequality, social media accountability

Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, will take stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this year to deliver a stark warning to business leaders and policymakers:  Without worker participation, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence risk deepening global inequalities and further concentrating power among a small elite.

“In just two years, the AI conversation among many employers has shifted from boosting workers to replacing them – all while a handful of companies tighten their grip on the models driving this transformation,” Hoffman said, representing millions of union members in 150 countries. “If workers aren’t at the table shaping how AI is deployed, it will be an engine for inequality more than for worthwhile innovation. Our democracies, our communities and our economies cannot afford another year without a shift of power to working people to ensure they have a say in the new world of work.”

Another key concern highlighted by Hoffman is the growing refusal of social media platforms to take accountability for accurate, safe content across their sites. UNI’s affiliates represent both tech employees who work directly for companies like Meta and Alphabet, but also the data supply chain workers who moderate content and train large language models.

She continued:

“The anti-democratic forces of disinformation, violence and grotesque deepfakes are getting stronger and are at the gates – and without a professional, well-trained, well-paid army of moderators, augmented by ethical AI – they will take over much of what is good about social media. If tech titans won’t protect us by investing in these frontline workers, they’re essentially inviting this chaos through the door.”

Unions, she argues, are needed to counterbalance the weight of tech titans like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg who are pushing for rollbacks of regulations and rights in the United States, Europe and beyond.

Hoffman is one of the world’s leading experts on decent work in a digital age. She is also one of the few Davos participants representing workers facing day-to-day consequences of new technologies.