EURACTIV.com (02.02.2023) After months of arduous negotiations, the much-debated and politically sensitive platform workers’ file was finally approved in plenary on Thursday (2 February), with 376 in favour and 212 against. The text enshrines a legal presumption of employment for self-employed platform workers and reinforces workers’ rights and protection in the face of algorithmic management.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has enormous potential to promote global economic growth by more than 15 trillion USD. Additionally, it can advance social good by helping to combat climate change and biodiversity loss, reduce human trafficking,  improve healthcare, and support achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. AI also can strengthen the national security of the United States and other countries.

worldbank.org (2022) As we move into an increasingly digital world, governments across the globe are leveraging new technologies to deliver services better, faster, and more transparently. Globally, over a quarter of adults are receiving payments from the government whether through public sector wages, pensions, sectoral subsidies, or social protection programs, an increase of 400 million from just four years earlier.

theprint.in (31.11.2022) Social Protection Open Digital Ecosystems (SP-ODEs) can provide beneficiaries, government and service providers a unified, digital platform to better access welfare schemes.

.worldbank.org (30.09.2022) There is currently a major focus on digitization within African countries, with the interest of, on the one hand, increasing efficiency and lowering the cost-of-service delivery, and on the other hand, increasing financial inclusion for excluded parts of the population. Zambia provides an important case study of digitization of social protection transfers.

Government Information Quarterly  (October 2022) Administrative errors in unemployment insurance (UI) decisions give rise to a public values conflict between efficiency and efficacy. We analyze whether artificial intelligence (AI) – in particular, methods in machine learning (ML) – can be used to detect administrative errors in UI claims decisions, both in terms of accuracy and normative tradeoffs. We use 16 years of US Department of Labor audit and policy data on UI claims to analyze the accuracy of 7 different random forest and deep learning models.

worldbank.org (2022) The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in vast numbers of people in need of social assistance, many of whom were not previously covered by social safety nets. To meet this unprecedented level of need, governments quickly scaled social assistance reaching over 1.7 billion people in low- and middle income countries.

worldbank.org (03.10.2022) The COVID-19 crisis highlighted how digital public infrastructure (DPI) can play a critical role for governments to deliver social assistance quickly and safely.  DPI not only allowed governments to reach an unprecedented number of new beneficiaries, it also allowed them to make payments to them remotely. This brought millions of people into the social protection and financial system for the first time.

tandfonline.com (31.03.2021) What are the effects of biometric and digital technologies on social protection for the poor in India? Drawing on ethnographic research from rural Tamil Nadu, this paper presents evidence of how new technologies are experienced by beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS), and analyses the impacts of technology innovations on transparency, exclusion and mediation. The authors focus on the implementation of ‘smartcards,’ new digitised and Aadhaar-enabled ration cards, introduced in ration shops across Tamil Nadu in 2017.

The Economic Times (26.08.2022) The government plans to integrate e-Shram portal with state portal for onboarding social security schemes run by the central government and the state governments to universalize social protection to workers and to improve employment opportunities for them.