“Gig, crowd, and cloud – that all sounds so easy-going and modern,” said Federal Minister Hubertus Heil at our Platform Summit on April 19. “But is the reality for people working on platforms also so easy-going and modern?” The answers are ambivalent: on the one hand, digital platforms offer new possibilities for finding work quickly and flexibly. On the other hand, however, the balance of power has clearly tilted in favour of the platform operators at the expense of the people working on them. We have summarised the highlights of these discussions and will be continuing to pursue this topic.

Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in May

On 19 and 20 May, we want to continue the discourse on the impact of a digitalised working world but focus on AI. What rules are required to harness the potential offered by AI, while simultaneously protecting workers’ rights? The EU Commission recently tabled a proposal for regulating AI. This will also be one of the topics addressed at our AI Conference, which is entitled “Algorithms, automation and work – How AI can improve our work and our lives.” We will provide an update on the projects being worked on under the AI strategy, presenting the new AI experimentation spaces, and offering an insight into the work of the AI Observatory. In addition, Federal Minister Hubertus Heil will be officially opening the new AI Future Centres.

We wish you an enjoyable read.

The Policy Lab team