Abroad|21/12/23

GERMANY: “We can and must use AI to make work safer”

Home > The news of EUROGIP and occupational risks in Europe > GERMANY: “We can and must use AI to make work safer”

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have a significant impact on the world of work and occupational safety. We can and must use it to make work safer”, said Stefan Hussy, Director General of the German Statutory Accident Insurance (DGUV), which is already using AI for a variety of purposes.

BG ETEM, for example, is leading the Reha Plus project, in which AI is helping to identify accident victims in need of early rehabilitation. It also assesses nearly 50,000 accidents every week according to uniform criteria, a task that would be impossible to perform manually. At the Berlin Trauma Hospital, radiologists have been using AI since 2021 to quickly detect brain haemorrhages, and a similar project is underway for spinal injuries. Another example is the ENTRAPon project, funded by the DGUV, which uses AI to identify patterns of accidents, near misses, trips, slips and falls, enabling predictions to be made.

In the administrative sphere, social insurance with AI has a particular responsibility, as it deals with sensitive data and makes decisions that directly affect companies and employees. “It is crucial that AI is only used to prepare basic decisions that humans are able to make and understand”, Dr Hussy reminds us.

The DGUV is also involved in the BMAS’s “AI Network in Labour and Social Administration”, which has drawn up “binding guidelines for the use of AI in official practice”. It also welcomes the government’s plan to draft a law on the subject, as well as the future European regulation on AI.

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