Court Sides with AMS on Algorithm: Project Remains Terminated

However, this is of little use to the AMS - all data related to AMAS had to be deleted at that time, and the project is definitively dead.

The dispute was about whether the digital tool, which was intended to determine the labor market opportunities of unemployed people, would have a significant influence on the decisions of AMS personnel. The so-called Labor Market Assistance System (AMAS) was supposed to be introduced nationwide in Austria at the beginning of 2021, but in August 2020, the data protection authority stopped the project by decision. The authority criticized, among other things, the lack of legal basis for the project and identified prohibited individual decisions ("profiling").

In principle, the AMS wanted to make the allocation of support measures more efficient by categorizing unemployed people into three categories with high, medium, and low labor market opportunities via a computer algorithm. The most support was supposed to go to unemployed people with medium labor market opportunities. However, the responsible advisors were still supposed to make the final decision on unemployment support, such as whether someone receives an expensive skilled worker training or not.

Development Nullified in One Stroke

"With this tool, we wanted labor market policy interventions to be possible much faster and integration into the labor market to succeed better," said AMS head Johannes Kopf on Thursday, according to a statement. "Ten years after the project started and five years after the decision of the data protection authority, we are certified to have acted legally correctly at that time. Public prejudgments, as we had to experience during this time - especially when they occur against better knowledge - harm societal discourse, show hostility to technology, and undermine trust in institutions," criticized Kopf.

Due to the decision of the data protection authority, not only was the application of AMAS prohibited in practice at that time, but also the storage and processing of the data. "As a result, the AMS had to delete everything that had been done and developed in connection with AMAS in the fall of 2020. This nullified almost the entire innovation worth around 2.5 million euros for the AMS in one stroke," explained Kopf.

No Revival for AMAS

"We will not revive AMAS now, too much time has passed, and today one would probably use AI instead of the regression calculations of that time," said the AMS head. They are in exchange with other European labor market administrations and are also continuing their own research.

(APA/Red)

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