Artificial Intelligence, Gig Economy and Precarity

In this chapter, we explore the duality of the artificial intelligence (AI)–enabled gig economy in terms of the precarity and the promise it offers. In particular we focus on underrepresented and disadvantaged groups of workers who found new homes in the AI-enabled gig economy. We explore how their precarity is viewed in the extant literature. We then expose the lack of attention to this group of workers, whose exclusion from the traditional labour market was not originally problematised, who now are portrayed as suffering as a result of poor regulation of AI. As such we expose the hypocrisy in terms of how precarity is problematised with the development of AI-enabled gig economy and yet the potential of the gig economy to open up opportunities for atypical workers is often overlooked. One of the concerns that we observe is the over-representation of the atypical workers in the sector. We demonstrate that it is possible to have an AI-enabled gig economy which does not lead to precarity, if there is effective regulation of the sector. We provide a brief roadmap with multilevel regulatory controls for combatting precarity in the AI-led gig economy.