Ethical Principles for Using Artificial Intelligence

As a proud World Employment Confederation (WEC) member, ACSESS strives to ensure its members uphold WEC's "Code of Ethical Principles in the use of Artificial Intelligence.”

In alignment with WEC, we believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help human beings facilitate their journey in the labour market.  

To support this goal, WEC has developed a comprehensive document to memorialize its position as an industry on the responsible and ethical use of AI as a standard across our industry. Specifically, it outlines the benefits of AI to companies and individuals and lists ethical principles for using AI. Recognizing the evolving nature of AI, this is a living set of principles that will be adapted over time. (For reference, this document refers to AI as systems that display intelligent behaviour by analyzing their environment and taking actions to achieve specific goals.)

These are the 10 principles the WEC fully supports, which ACSESS endorses and encourages its members to apply:

  1. Human-centric Design - AI systems used in the recruitment and employment industry should provide beneficial outcomes for individuals and society as a whole. 
     
  2. Human in Command - AI systems used in the recruitment and employment industry should be designed to augment human capabilities, with clear processes in place to ensure that they remain under human direction and control at all times. 
     
  3. Transparency, Explainability & Traceability - Those using AI systems in the recruitment and employment industry should be transparent about their use of technology, providing workers and employees with information about their interactions with AI systems and explaining how these systems arrive at their decisions. 
     
  4. Fairness & Inclusivity by Design - AI systems used in the recruitment and employment industry must treat individuals fairly and respect the principles of non-discrimination, diversity, and inclusiveness. Appropriate risk assessments and mitigation systems shall be implemented throughout the AI system lifecycle. 
     
  5. Privacy - The use of AI systems in the recruitment and employment industry should comply with the application of general privacy principles and should protect individuals against any adverse effect from the use of personal information in AI. 
     
  6. Safety & Security - AI systems need to be technically robust and reliable in order to be trusted. Safety and security are required to establish monitoring and tracking processes to measure the model performance and retrain it, as necessary, to modernize it.
     
  7. Accountability - Those deploying AI systems remain at all times responsible and accountable for their use. 
     
  8. Ethical Governance - WEC encourages clear, transparent, and accountable governance frameworks in place to ensure the ethical development and use of AI. This includes the involvement of relevant stakeholders, such as governments, civil society, and academia, in the decision-making process. 
     
  9. Building Human Capacity - AI should be used to appropriately enhance workers and manage fair transitions through the implementation of life-long learning, skills development and training that allow workers to interact with AI systems, adapt to AI-generated changes and access new opportunities in the labour market.
     
  10. Environmental and Societal Well-being - AI systems should be designed and used in a way that takes into account the environmental and societal impacts of their use.

Please access and read WEC's complete "Code of Ethical Principles in the Use of Artificial Intelligence” document.

 (Photo: Igor Omilaev)