Teachers at Euan Blair’s £1.6bn tech training company, Multiverse, have blown the whistle about “horrendous stress” and feeling constantly watched after bosses started using AI models to surveil and rate their teaching. Staff delivering apprenticeship training in computer and AI skills to thousands of UK public and private sector workers now have transcripts of online classroom sessions analysed and scored by an AI programmed to alert human managers when they are suspected of doing things wrong. The AI is trained to flag problems in their performance ranging from not fixing a disruption to the online connection quickly enough – within about a minute – to using too many “filler” phrases, such as “sort of” and “kind of”.
Teachers called the newly introduced system “remorseless” and “unnerving”, and said some staff were on edge, losing sleep and seeking therapy. Multiverse was co-founded by the eldest son of the former prime minister Tony Blair and employs more than 800 people. It supplies AI and digital skills training to workers in the NHS, local councils, universities and the private sector, mostly funded through the government’s apprenticeship levy.
Alongside his father, Blair is a supporter of wider AI adoption in the UK economy, claiming last week that “every single worker is going to need to be retrained” and that employers want their workforces “as AI-pilled as possible”. Multiverse uses a mix of AI models including Anthropic and OpenAI products. Its new AI teacher monitoring system tags each instructor by their “risk status”, calculates a “percentage confidence score” and produces written comments about teachers’ work for managers to see at a glance.
It is only the latest example of employers using AI to track worker behaviour. Earlier this year Burger King started using AI to track restaurant workers’ customer interactions and this summer Meta paused tracking of employees’ computer keystrokes amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash. With critics warning AI monitoring risks eroding human agency, one study has suggested it can backfire by turning workers rebellious and new research to be published this week reports that workers in the wider UK tech industry are finding AI degrades work satisfaction.
The United Tech and Allied Workers branch of the Communication Workers Union concluded AI causes “cognitive surrender” as workers lose skills and confidence and often intensifies rather than eases work. I’ve gone through a lot of things in my life, and I haven’t ever been in a position where I’m waking up in the middle of the night.” Previously instructors were observed monthly by a human manager but are now watched for several hours a day by an AI. It is trained to consider marking instructors down if they give vague or uncertain answers to questions, if learners go quiet when asked to contribute and if the teacher gets pulled into a prolonged one-to-one exchange that sidelines the group.
Multiverse says the AI does not replace human judgment but “directs human time to where it’s needed most” by highlighting problems. A spokesperson said it was “using AI to improve the experience of learners and customers”, and that only human managers wrote teachers’ performance reviews. They did not directly address complaints the system caused stress and anxiety and felt “remorseless”, but said its introduction was communicated in advance and teachers will have access to the data the AI collects.
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