ASSP's Position on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Occupational Safety and Health
ASSP is the professional community that protects people, property and the environment. We believe safety, health and well-being are fundamental rights for all workers.
Like any emerging/new technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool that has the potential to improve occupational safety and health (OSH) and promote healthier work environments that enhance worker well-being overall. At the same time, it’s critical to recognize that AI also has the potential to introduce new hazards that endanger workers, as well as new concerns about privacy.
As the trusted advisor for OSH, ASSP is committed to upholding ethical standards for AI that align with our values and support our goal that every worker returns home safely each day.
We strive to assist OSH professionals, organizations and the companies they serve in leveraging AI to enhance OSH while also upholding ethical standards and protecting the well-being of all individuals involved.
Given the opportunities and risks associated with AI, we affirm these fundamental principles that guide how we approach AI and its use in a responsible, ethical manner:
- Trust: We believe that AI should enhance OSH professionals’ skills, not replace human judgment and decision-making. OSH professionals should oversee AI-driven OSH solutions and hazard remediation to ensure decisions consider context, ethics and exposures.
- Transparency: We believe workers, managers and leaders must be informed about the capabilities and limitations of AI technologies deployed in their work environments.
- Equity: We are committed to ensuring that AI technologies do not aggravate existing disparities or introduce new forms of discrimination in practices related to workplace safety and health.
- Privacy: We call on organizations to implement safeguards to prevent unauthorized access, misuse or exploitation of sensitive information collected by AI systems.
Our commitment to the OSH profession is to share best practices and lessons learned that inform continued implementation of AI to support efforts to improve workplace safety, protect workers and improve organizational performance.
Approved by ASSP Board of Directors | Sept. 30, 2024
Next Steps
ASSP is actively recruiting members interested in serving on
a task force that will explore the role of AI in the future of work and safety. Their goal will be to better understand how AI impacts the workplace, the workforce, members and the Society's role as a trusted source. This input will inform strategic direction and investment.
Apply for task force
AI Terms to Know and Understand
- Artificial intelligence: AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to mimic human cognitive functions such as learning, problem-solving and decision-making.
- Machine learning: A subset of AI that enables systems to learn from data and improve their performance without being explicitly programmed (e.g., spam email filters).
- Deep Learning: Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that involves artificial neural networks with many layers (deep architectures) capable of learning representations of data (e.g., computer vision tasks such as image recognition).
- Natural language processing: A branch of AI that focuses on the interaction between computers and humans through natural language (e.g., Google Translate).
- Reinforcement learning: A type of machine learning where an agent learns to make decisions by interacting with an environment. It learns from feedback in the form of rewards or penalties.
- Computer vision: A field of AI that enables computers to interpret and understand the visual world through digital images or videos (e.g., facial recognition systems).
How Our Position Statement Came About
AI is transforming nearly all aspects of society. It is fueling improvements in productivity and will likely be a significant influencer on the future of work. AI offers opportunities to improve worker safety, health and well-being while also introducing potential new workplace risks in both traditional and non-traditional ways.
To address this workforce transformation, ASSP's Board of Directors created a working group to understand how AI impacts the workplace, the workforce, our members and the Society's role as a trusted source on occupational safety and health.
Using market insights and member input, the working group gauged our members' knowledge of AI and helped frame ASSP’s role in supporting its members as AI advances and continues to reshape workplace safety. This work is also informing how the Board of Directors will build a strategy to increase member knowledge, proficiency and understanding of AI, with a goal to encourage safe AI practices within the organization and the membership.
Insights and Observations
In gathering data and information addressing AI, the working group identified several high-level themes.
- Leading the profession. OSH professionals expect ASSP to take a leadership role with OSH and AI. Professionals recognize that this issue is too large and diverse for one organization to be the primary leader and understand the critical role organizational partnerships and collaboration will play.
- Understanding impact on professions and jobs. AI will likely change job roles and require change management, including identifying necessary skills and providing training. However, use of AI does not reduce the role of safety professionals. Human interaction is essential as organizations cannot rely solely on AI for tasks that require human expertise and decision-making.
- Improving awareness. Many OSH professionals report they lack knowledge about AI and its implications, creating a need for increased education and awareness.
- Providing training and guidance. OSH professionals also indicate a need for training on intermediate-level AI, best practices and ethical implementation. Other identified needs include guidance on verifying information and improving questioning techniques, as well as resources such as articles, case studies and benchmarking.
- Defining ethical implications. Concerns with the use of AI include biases and the impact on professional obligations and certifications. Members and the OSH community will look to ASSP for guidance on ethical use and implementation of AI in OSH.
- Protecting privacy and data. AI raises concerns about privacy and data protection, and addressing these issues will continue to be critical to implementation and acceptance.
AI Resources From ASSP
Free Education
ASSP, along with our common interest group and practice specialty member communities, deliver educational content to members throughout the year, including some offerings that address AI and related topics. We've curated a selection of available sessions that you can access here on demand.
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