What does Artificial Intelligence (AI) have to do with workplace safety and health? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been at the forefront of workplace safety and robotics, creating the Center for Occupational Robotics Research (CORR) and posting blogs such as A Robot May Not Injure a Worker: Working safely with robots. However, much remains unknown regarding the related field of AI, specifically the application of AI at work. AI is a broad transdisciplinary field with roots in logic, statistics, cognitive psychology, decision theory, neuroscience, linguistics, cybernetics, and computer engineering. Machine learning (ML), a sub-discipline of AI, has led to the application of internet searches, ecommerce sites, goods and services recommender systems, image and speech recognition, sensor technologies, robotic devices, and cognitive decision support systems (see the blog AI and Workers’ Comp).
It is predicted that the impact of AI will be as globally transformative on economic and social structures as steam engines, railroads, electricity, electronics, and the Internet.[1][2] [3] AI applications in the workplace of the future raise important issues for occupational safety and health. “Artificial Intelligence: Implications for the Future of Work” was recently published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The commentary reviews the origins of AI, the use of machine learning methods, and emerging AI applications such as sensor technologies, robotic devices, or decision support systems.