ALGORITHMS AT WORK: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY READING GROUP

Automated systems are increasingly running workplaces – from everyday management to hiring and firing workers. AI hasn’t come for workers’ jobs: it is managers who see their traditional tasks replaced or supplemented by sophisticated analyses of personal data. The pervasive reliance on ‘people analytics’, monitoring technology and algorithms to measure, control, and sanction workers is highly controversial: whilst fast and efficient, the technology is easily prone to bias and threatens to disperse responsibility into the cloud.

Convened by Jeremias Adams-Prassl, Halefom Abraha, Rakshita Sangh, and Six Silberman, this reading group will explore the effects of algorithmic management and its current and future regulation, drawing on disciplines including law, economics, sociology, and computer science. We meet weekly at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights (Thursday, 12:30 – 13:45; with lunch provided from 12:15) during term throughout the academic year. At the start of each session, paper authors and/or group members present the week’s reading to kick off discussion.

Applications are invited from across the University. Membership is capped to ensure consistent participation; a pre-reading list can be provided on request to assist with a basic common understanding of algorithmic decision-making.

To apply, please email ai.work@law.ox.ac.uk with a short paragraph explaining your background and interest in the topic.