Technology
In Dublin, tech workers raise concerns about AI
Dublin AI Countersummit
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Dublin, Ireland, is a longtime hub for American tech companies. A group of workers held a summit to discuss their concerns about AI in Irish workplaces and life.
Dublin, Ireland, is where many American tech companies have set up their European headquarters, companies like Google, Meta and Microsoft. Last week, the Irish government hosted an AI conference touting the ways it’s making Europe more competitive and showcasing innovations in everything from patient care to the future of food. But a group of former tech workers and union organizers threw their own counter-AI summit to talk about their concerns. NPR’s Willa Rubin was there.
WILLA RUBIN, BYLINE: Years ago, a postal workers union was headquartered in this building on the north side of Dublin. Now it’s HQ for the Communication Workers’ Union, which represents some of Ireland’s tech workers. The counter-summit was the brainchild of tech union organizer John Bohan.
JOHN BOHAN: It’s a point of coming together. It’s movement-building. It’s coalition-building. And fundamentally, for me, it’s about inserting our union and our members into a movement that is international.
RUBIN: About 70 people gathered for panels, documentary screenings, workshops. One was organizer Bruna Batista Nicocelli. She is originally from Brazil, moved to Dublin, got a tech-related job. She was wearing this shirt, which everyone at the conference got…
BRUNA BATISTA NICOCELLI: And it says Workers Against Slopaganda (ph).
RUBIN: Slopaganda.
BATISTA NICOCELLI: Slopaganda, yes.
RUBIN: Slop – AI slop – and -aganda (ph) propaganda. It’s got a picture of two people, all pixelated, smashing a computer.
BATISTA NICOCELLI: And that’s a message we want to pass to the people that we should fight slopaganda in the workplace with AI.
RUBIN: Economists say tech helped spur Ireland’s economic boom in a generation or two. Bohan says he’s seen it.
BOHAN: My father grew up in a house without running water and electricity for a long time. And that’s, like, not that long ago.
RUBIN: Dublin’s been a magnet for business since the mid-’90s when, very quickly, Ireland became one of Europe’s wealthiest nations. Ireland has had a low corporate tax rate, intended to attract international companies, get them to create jobs here. And when Silicon Valley boomed, lots of tech companies set up shop in Dublin. Many of the people in this room came here to join the tech industry or to study it. Now many of them feel like Ireland has been too lenient on tech companies because it’s trying not to alienate them. Here’s Bohan again.
BOHAN: Ireland is desperate to maintain this kind of social contract that’s existed between them and the companies.
RUBIN: The people at the summit worry that AI is changing the workplace so much that the jobs they came here for could soon disappear. Jennifer Paz (ph) was recently laid off from a job training AI bots to moderate content. She fears that AI could take these kinds of jobs.
JENNIFER PAZ: So of course, when I found this job, I was really excited because I was like, OK, I’m going to work with AI. And of course, you see – and it’s marketed as – one of the best thing that can happen in society. But in reality, it is replacing jobs.
RUBIN: Others worry that AI is making everyone dumber. Dr. Abeba Birhane is an AI accountability professor at Trinity College Dublin. She says she’s seen people using AI to study AI. Her big fear…
ABEBA BIRHANE: It’s going to lead to a knowledge collapse eventually.
RUBIN: A knowledge collapse. On the last day of the conference, Bohan co-led a workshop about how workplaces are being transformed by AI. He asked the room…
BOHAN: What would you demand about how AI gets introduced where you work?
RUBIN: People said things like, maybe ban it in schools, or if AI helps people be so good at their jobs, why not have a four-day work week? And most of all, can people ask management about how or why they should be using AI? The union’s planning to take these ideas to the next Irish Parliamentary subcommittee on AI. Bohan closed out the workshop with a note of encouragement.
BOHAN: So it’s up to us to steer the ship towards optimism, towards workers’ power and towards a more democratic society. So great work participating.
RUBIN: Willa Rubin, NPR News, Dublin.
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