Why Due Diligence Matters for AI

Introducing a new special issue on legal perspectives on artificial intelligence in the French journal Revue de Droit du Travail (Labor Law Review) (Claire Marzo and DiPLab’s Antonio Casilli wrote the extensive introduction—see the end of this post for the preprint version). As part of the special issue, by Dr. Baptiste Delmas, associate professor of law at Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne University and co-principal investigator of the DiPLab/IAA project AI WORLd authored a landmark article examining the importance of due diligence laws in ensuring respect of data workers’ fundamental rights.

Delmas_-_IA_et_devoir_de_vigilanceDownload

Baptiste Delmas (2025). [AI and Due Diligence] Devoir de vigilance et IA. Revue de Droit du Travail, 10, pp. 600-616.

21st Century Laborers

Regardless of whether these workers are recruited by digital labor platforms as self-employed workers or access proprietary platforms via subcontractors located around the world, most often in countries where social protections are weaker than elsewhere, the risks of infringing on freedom of association, decent pay, prohibitions on forced or child labour, the right to a healthy and safe working environment, and even respect for personal data are high.

Over the last few years, the press have built upon existing scholarship to report on the difficult working conditions experienced by these 21st-century laborers.

Who should be held responsible?

This due diligence is an important response to the issue—as well as to identify liabilities. This needs to be addressed seriously. By requiring clients of AI solutions, parent companies, and main contractors to publish an annual due diligence plan containing a detailed risk map, sector by sector and country by country, within their subsidiaries and also among subcontractors and suppliers with whom they have established commercial relationships, this duty can effectively enable a prevention policy by preventing or minimizing these risks.

Currently, the French law of 27 March 2017 is the only one in force in a European country that has such a broad scope and has already been implemented. A European directive has been adopted in 2024, but it is currently being challenged by the European Commission on a number of grounds. As part of the due diligence process, the largest French companies that directly provide data preparation services for AI vendors and clients – such as Teleperformance and Capgemini – or that purchase data preparation directly or indirectly by purchasing artificial intelligence services that they intend to deploy need to be concerned about the working conditions of these data workers.

As of today, only a handful of companies in the AI sector approach this due diligence with genuine rigor — a point that trade unions and workers’ organisations, both within and beyond France, could usefully remind them of.

Read the introduction to the special issue here:

Marzo Casilli 2025 RDTDownload

Claire Marzo & Antonio A. Casilli (2025). [Regulating AI Hidden Labor] Réguler le travail caché de l’intelligence artificielle. Revue de droit du travail, 2025, 09, pp.520-529.