Dr hab. prof. UL Krzysztof Stefański from the Department of Labour Law, UL has been appointed a coordinator of the team. The team also includes: from the Department of Law Policy – dr hab. prof. UL Sylwia Wojtczak as well as from the Department of Labour Law – dr Izabela Florczak, dr Marta Otto and dr Ewa Staszewska.
Technological progress as well as groundbreaking inventions have always resulted in social changes. It can be seen, especially, with respect to the human work – both working conditions as well as its availability. And so, invention of print by Gutenberg in the 15th century accelerated, despite the fierce struggle of the masters of illuminators united in a corporation, the end of the profession of a copyist. Similarly, industrial revolution, which started in the 18th century, led to disappearance of some professions, such as for example a tiler, a tinker or a potter. Almost in front of us processes of automation and computerisation caused that professions such as a typist rewriting texts, telephonist or a typesetter no longer function.
On the other hand, inventing a printing press by Gutenberg simultaneously led to formation of a profession of a typographer. Industrial revolution was undoubtedly a beginning of new forms of work organization as well as many new professions both at the worker level (related to the operation of new devices, such as an electrician or a turner) and those requiring expert knowledge (engineers of various specialisations). Finally, progress of digitization allowed for creation of previously unknown entire branches of economy and professions related to it, such as IT specialists and programmers.
Currently we are facing a new breakthrough in the history related to the development of artificial intelligence. Its development and dissemination may change almost all areas of our lives. There is no doubt that artificial intelligence will have an enormous impact on the contemporary labour world, in the context of both, labour market, labour law and social security law.
In some branches, replacing humans by robots, which are remotely controlled by artificial intelligence, will be surely met with enthusiasm as it constitutes a chance to reduce or eliminate performing works that pose a risk of health or life loss to humans. In other branches the trend may be perceived in a totally different way, namely, as a risk of loss of many jobs, and consequently the earning potential of hundreds of thousands of workers. The changes will not refer to the structure of labour market only. At the same time they will influence the labour law and social security law. Certainly they will have a great influence on the process of work provision and its conditions. Neither do we know the scale of the future phenomena yet nor the time perspective of their occurrence. However, it is already today that we can conclude that artificial intelligence development has a chance to lead to great, if not revolutionary transformations of the work environment. The newly appointed team will focus on examination of these phenomena.
Contact with the Team: aipraca@wpia.uni.lodz.pl
University of Lodz is one of the biggest universities in Poland. Its mission is to educate top-class scientists and specialists in numerous fields of humanities, social sciences, natural and exact sciences as well as health sciences. UniLodz cooperates with business, both at the staff level by providing qualified employees as well as at the scientific level, by offering its know-how to enterprises from various areas of economy. University of Lodz is an academic institution open to the world – the number of its international students is constantly growing, while its Polish students, thanks to Exchange programmes, get to know Europe, Asia and travel overseas. The University is a part of Lodz, it operates for and with the community of Lodz by getting involved in many socio-cultural projects.
Source: dr Izabela Florczak, dr Marta Otto, dr hab. prof. of UL Krzysztof Stefański
Edit: Promotion Centre, UL