Using an AI system to recognise employee emotions
In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI for short) has become increasingly prevalent in various areas of our lives, with its main goals being to make processes as efficient as possible and reduce time, personnel and financial costs. However, the development of this advanced technology also raises a number of ethical issues, including the potential for AI to be used to monitor employees. This technology could be used to analyse the behaviour or even emotional states of employees in the workplace. This would give employers access to a wealth of real-time data on the moods of their workers. But is such monitoring legally permissible?
Author of the article: ARROWS (Mgr. Jakub Oliva, LL.M., MSc., office@arws.cz, +420 245 007 740)
Regulation of AI in the European Union
The European Union has recently moved to regulate AI through the Artificial Intelligence Act, which sets out the rules for the use of AI in EU member states. Among other things, this regulation governs which AI practices are completely prohibited. Such practices, according to Article 5(1)(f), include precisely the use of AI systems for emotion recognition in workplaces and educational institutions, except where necessary for health or safety reasons. Thus, employers are prohibited from using an AI system that recognises employees' emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, embarrassment, upset, shame, contempt, satisfaction, amusement, etc., based on their biometric data.
On the other hand, the AI Act explicitly states that such an emotion recognition system does not mean a system that recognizes physical conditions such as pain or fatigue, including, for example, systems used to detect the fatigue state of professional pilots or drivers for the purpose of preventing accidents. Nor is the mere detection of readily visible expressions, gestures or movements prohibited if they are not used to detect or infer emotions. Such expressions may be basic facial expressions such as a frown or smile, or gestures such as hand, arm or head movements, or characteristics of the person's voice such as a raised voice or whisper.
Practical implications for businesses
For companies considering the use of an AI system, for example, to analyse CCTV footage from workplaces
(more on the use of workplace cameras here https://www.arws.cz/novinky-v-arrows/kamery-na-pracovistich-na-co-si-dat-pozor), this means that they should carefully consider the risks and ensure that they use these technologies in accordance with the rules set out by the AI Act.
The use of AI systems to monitor employees inherently presents a significant challenge
in the context of protecting the privacy and rights of employees. Companies should therefore be cautious when implementing such technologies to ensure compliance with the new rules and to avoid potentially high penalties, which the AI Act provides for in this case up to EUR 35,000,000 or up to 7% of the company's total worldwide annual turnover in the previous financial year.