Around 30 humanoid and quadruped robots appeared outside Poland’s Ministry of Digital Affairs in Warsaw on Monday, 7 September, in what organizers called the world’s first protest by humanoid robots, demanding rules to protect workers as artificial intelligence and automation spread through the fastest-growing major economy in Eastern Europe.
The robots marched outside the ministry while loudspeakers played slogans including ‘Defend workplaces’, ‘Time for rules’, and ‘Don’t wait, regulate’. The demonstration was organized by Democratism, a social initiative focused on the labour-market impact of AI and robotization, with Polish robotics company Delta Robots serving as its technology partner and supplying the machines. Democratism says it does not want to halt technological progress, but wants rules combining innovation with job security and preparation for workers whose positions are transformed or cut.
Its spokesman, Grzegorz Kuliś, argued that Poland faces a particularly sharp version of the problem because it risks becoming primarily a consumer rather than a producer of advanced AI and robotics. He said that around 30 per cent of Polish jobs are indirectly exposed to AI and nearly one million jobs are directly at risk.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government is currently pushing policy in the opposite direction, with Warsaw accelerating adoption. The administration aims to turn Poland into one of Europe’s leading AI ecosystems, despite the fact that last year only 8.4 per cent of Polish companies used AI, lagging behind the EU average of 20 per cent. The draft strategy combines domestic models such as PLLuM with AI factories, expanding supercomputing capacity, regulatory sandboxes, and wider deployment in business and public administration.
Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who came outside to meet the demonstrators, nevertheless accepted much of their diagnosis. He warned that ‘uncontrolled’ AI could shift decision-making from people to algorithms, insisted that ‘the human comes first’, and said statutory regulation was needed when companies use machines as a basis for replacing workers.
The issue has also exposed a broader political divide over how far Poland should go in regulating AI. PiS has generally backed the creation of a national regulatory framework while stressing that Polish companies, researchers, and industry must remain competitive in the technological race. On the right, however, both Konfederacja and Grzegorz Braun’s Konfederacja Korony Polskiej (KKP) have warned that excessive regulation risks slowing innovation and deepening Europe’s technological disadvantage compared with the United States and China.
Public opinion points towards a compromise. A May CBOS poll found that 2.2 per cent of Polish adults said AI had already cost them a job or reduced their commissions—around 669,000 people. The broader EU-wide atmosphere leans more towards a positive view of robots and AI at work, with 70 per cent believing they improve productivity. 84 per cent nevertheless said AI requires careful management.
The economic side of the story explains Warsaw’s strategic decision to significantly expand its AI capabilities. The World Bank estimates that wider AI adoption could lift Poland’s real GDP by between 1.3 and 12.1 per cent by 2035, depending partly on investment, worker adaptation, and public policy. Labour protection is therefore not necessarily an argument against AI, but a question of how its gains and disruption are distributed.
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