New solidarity for an AI-disrupted economy: a lookback on our event in Berlin

On January 15, 2025, SciencesPo Tech & Global Affairs Innovation Hub was glad to co-organize with the RadicalxChange Foundation and Global Solutions Initiative an official side-event to the Paris AI Action Summit.

A few weeks before the Summit and while the effects of the current AI boom on labor markets are the subject of heated discussions, close to 80 participants from governments, civil society organizations, unions, academia and the industry convened at the Mercator Stiftung to sketch out what the "New Solidarity for an AI-Disrupted Economy" will look like.

This convening was kickstarted by Christian Kastrop, CEO & Partner of Global Solutions Initiative, and Matt Prewitt, President of RadicalxChange Foundation, followed by thought-provoking opening remarks by Aart Jan De Geus, Former Minister of Social Affairs and Employment of the Netherlands & Deputy Secretary-General for the OECD, Chris Boos, CEO of Almato AI & Former Member of the German Government’s Digital Council, Paul Nemitz, Principal Adviser on the Digital Transition, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission, and Ana Dujić, Director-General of the Directorate “Digital, Work, Society” at the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. 

They were later joined by Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Member of the Parliament of Finland, former MEP, and Victoria Ivanova, R&D Strategic Lead at Serpentine Galleries for an enlightening panel that we strongly invite you to check out, together with the opening remarks.

This conversation lead to four, 1h30 breakout workshops where all participants had the opportunity to contribute to answering four forward-thinking questions:

• How can workers and labor organizers be equipped with tools and strategies to respond to disruptions from data usage and AI in the workplace?
• How can data market reform or other pro-labor policies make their way into the global AI policy agenda?
• How to structure a model law that gives trusted data intermediaries a vital role in the data market?
• How to prepare new forms of social insurance and capital ownership?

The insights that came out of these workshops, especially regarding the need for collective bargaining organizations, including existing unions, and new trusted data intermediaries to mitigate AI power concentration and protect workers' rights in the coming years inspired Matt Prewitt some initial thoughts that can read here.

This is the first event we organize on this crucial topic and certainly not the last. 

If you are interested in contributing to this ongoing effort on the proper governance framework needed to ensure AI systems positively impact labor markets and workers around the globe, please reach out to the Hub's team!