Change is rapid in this area and good policy is informed by your experience.
NTEU recognises the potential of AI to enhance and enrich work and outcomes in our sector, provided that it is developed and implemented in an ethical manner that does not represent a high risk to the sector, our members or the national interest in maintaining a trusted high-Quality higher education system.
With members working in an industry whose function is the generation and transmission of knowledge and where citation is, not only the currency of an academic career, it is how works are authenticated and evaluated. Current mining of materials by Large Language Models can rapidly undermine the nature of academic work, and is already having impacts on members through misappropriation of intellectual property as well as denial of the moral rights of authors. At the same time it has enormous potential when used ethically and transparently.
AI also poses many challenges that are not readily regulated within our industrial relations systems as they are currently configured. For example the model consultation term in the Fair Work Act requires an employer to consult with employees after a decision has made, whereas experience to date indicates that the use of AI is best when it is via a collaborative process for design, and cooperative trials are run to determine its suitability in the workplace. Similarly the industrial relations framework does not readily deal with issues of ownership and privacy of employee personal data.
For this reason we believe there need to be strong guardrails in addition to the rights and protections in the Fair Work Act.
NTEU is representing members as a participant in two tripartite processes seeking to bring clarity to the impact of AI on work and education which are being run by Jobs and Skills Australia and by the Department of Industry, Science and Technology. We also contribute to the ACTU AI Group developing policy, submissions and strategies.
In 2023 a working group of NTEU members was formed to investigate AI use in the sector and to prepare a discussion paper to inform NTEU policy and participation in the processes described above. The working party engaged in widespread consultation and the use of focus groups to determine the use and impact of AI on members. This led to the adoption of a national policy on AI. The work of the working party is ongoing and the discussion paper is a living working document that will evolve with time and further contributions.
If you are willing to contribute to the ongoing development of policy and debate within the NTEU on AI and our workplaces please contact the Chair of the Working Group, Dr. Jo Faulkner from Macquarie University at [email protected]. or if you have any questions or comments about NTEU's representation of members in relation to AI please contact National Assistant Secretary, Gabe Gooding at [email protected]