Organisations generate vast amounts of information, which has resulted in a long-term research effort into knowledge access systems for enterprise settings. Recent developments in artificial intelligence, in relation to large language models, are poised to have significant impact on knowledge access. This has the potential to shape the workplace and knowledge in new and unanticipated ways. Many risks can arise from the deployment of these types of AI systems, due to interactions between the technical system and organisational power dynamics. This paper presents the Consequence-Mechanism-Risk framework to identify risks to workers from AI-mediated enterprise knowledge access systems. We have drawn on wide-ranging literature detailing risks to workers, and categorised risks as being to worker value, power, and wellbeing. The contribution of our framework is to additionally consider (i) the consequences of these systems that are of moral import: commodification, appropriation, concentration of power, and marginalisation, and (ii) the mechanisms, which represent how these consequences may take effect in the system. The mechanisms are a means of contextualising risk within specific system processes, which is critical for mitigation. This framework is aimed at helping practitioners involved in the design and deployment of AI-mediated knowledge access systems to consider the risks introduced to workers, identify the precise system mechanisms that introduce those risks and begin to approach mitigation. Future work could apply this framework to other technological systems to promote the protection of workers and other groups.

翻译：组织生成海量信息，促使长期研究聚焦于企业环境中的知识访问系统。人工智能的最新发展（尤其是大型语言模型）即将对知识访问产生重大影响，这有望以前所未有的方式重塑工作场所与知识形态。由于技术系统与组织权力动态之间的相互作用，此类AI系统的部署可能引发多种风险。本文提出"后果-机制-风险"框架，用于识别AI中介的企业知识访问系统对工作者造成的风险。我们借鉴了详述工作者风险的广泛文献，将风险归纳为对工作者价值、权力和福祉的威胁。本框架的贡献在于额外考量：（i）这些系统具有道德重要性的后果：商品化、侵占、权力集中与边缘化；（ii）表征这些后果如何在系统中发挥作用的机制。机制是将风险置于具体系统流程中进行情境化的手段，这对风险缓解至关重要。该框架旨在帮助参与AI中介知识访问系统设计与部署的从业者，系统考量引入工作者的风险，精确定位引发这些风险的具体系统机制，并着手制定缓解方案。未来研究可将此框架应用于其他技术系统，以促进对工作者及其他群体的保护。