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Bootle, England — The use of artificial intelligence in industries regulated by Britain’s Health and Safety Executive – and how it could affect workers – is the focus of a new report.
HSE’s report is based on approximately 250 cases of AI being developed and deployed. It identifies four key areas of AI use:
Maintenance systems – advanced inspection, failure monitoring and decision support
Health and safety management – risk assessment, incident analysis and training material generation
Control of equipment and process plant – control of autonomous vehicles, robotic systems, machinery, industrial processes and process data analytics
Occupational monitoring – safety, workplace and worker monitoring
The report provides use examples in each key area as well as possible AI-related health and safety risks identified by survey respondents. Among the risks (broken down into three categories: human factors, health and safety, and technical):
- Overdependence on AI that may lead to reduced employee attention and weaken workplace safety culture
- Deskilling of the workforce in areas where work is performed by AI, which leads employees to lose essential knowledge
- Inaccurate safety assessments, resulting in appropriate controls not being implemented
- Systems that fail to alert operators to real hazards or trigger false alarms, leading to either equipment failures or wasted downtime
- Data privacy or security breaches of AI systems
- Flawed or biased data leading to unreliable safety decisions and missed hazards
- Complex AI decisions that are hard to explain, making failures difficult to understand and prevent
Additionally, the report lists potential control measures for AI and “processes, practices and standards to ensure AI systems are developed, deployed and operated in a safe, secure and robust manner.” It also includes a sample three-year plan for AI implementation and an overview of possible challenges.
“AI is rapidly developing in capability and is a transformative technology. It can create and exacerbate health and safety risk but also has the potential to bring real benefits for health and safety,” HSE said when it announced the report’s release.
McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.
Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication