"Artifical intelligence can be a boon for businesses, but can it protect workers?" 17 May 2018

Corporations are increasingly benefitting from digital expertise to manage their supply chains by tracking all the moves within the supply chain in real time, as well as intervening in the production and delivery processes immediately because of data collected from workplaces... [However] the use of AI to monitor supply chains could massively increase the power of corporations vis-a-vis their suppliers and workers, resulting in potential surveillance of workers by their employers... The current mainstream business model of profit-driven business where companies seek to lower prices at any cost to be competitive has caused “a race to the bottom” for their suppliers, who are generally located in the global South, by increasing the productivity of the labor force and decreasing wages. This model has intensified the exploitation of children through child labor, enabled instances of modern slavery, and undermined health and safety conditions... Human rights due diligence, promoted by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights... offer[s] important lessons for companies utilizing AI to manage their supply chains... If AI internalizes accumulated knowledge about “business and human rights” and allows workers and local businesses to track its decision-making process, then it could promote labor rights.