Improving Industry 4.0 to Human-Centric Industry 5.0 in Light of the Protection of Human Rights

In this paper, we scrutinize the human-centricity pillar of Industry 5.0—a factor improving Industry 4.0—from the viewpoint of the protection of human rights, social and economic rights ensured by several international organizations and the European Union with the AI Act in the focal point. According to criticisms against Industry 4.0, the inherent social dimension, the well-being of workers, the need for social inclusion and the adoption of technologies that do not substitute, but rather complement human capabilities (whenever possible) are missing key elements. Therefore, the Industry 5.0 initiative adopted by the European Commission in 2021 is not to replace Industry 4.0 but complements it with three substantial requirements as follows: resilience, sustainability, and human-centricity. In this regard, the human-centricity of Industry 5.0 and the human-centric approach to the responsible and trustworthy AI overlap each other, since the human-centric approach has already been adopted for digital technologies, including artificial intelligence and is (or will be) a part of the EU legislation considering the AI Act—the world's first comprehensive AI law—and other related regulatory tools. The AI Act's human-centric approach is based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the values of the EU. An essential element of the document is the categorization of AI systems, which addresses the technology's inherent risk to society. On this basis, the AI Act distinguishes unacceptable (e.g., social scoring); high (e.g., recruitment, evaluating candidates, monitoring of workers) and minimal or no risk AI systems (e.g., spam filters). Therefore, the risk assessment of AI systems is cardinal to categorizing the technology before its operation. As society's inclusion is prominently observed through fundamental rights, another critical step is the impact assessment of fundamental rights in high-risk AI systems. This act is crucial to assess the relationship between technology and fundamental rights and examine its impact (whether it is acceptable or not) on human and social rights. Several international organizations and the EU have highlighted in their working documents the importance of protecting fundamental rights regarding AI (e.g., the right to equality and non-discrimination, which might be infringed by using the technology during employment decisions or recruitment). In conclusion, the analysis of the topic is pivotal as the use of AI systems is already part of our daily lives at home and the workplace.