The largest labor organization in the U.S. has struck a deal with Microsoft to help strengthen workers’ rights against artificial intelligence.
The deal was announced by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on Monday, and represents a first-of-its-kind agreement for labor leaders to be trained on the emerging technology, while helping ensure workers at the tech giant are allowed to organize.
The agreement marks a major milestone for workers and labor leaders who have been struggling to contend with the existential threat posed by AI since the release of ChatGPT a year ago. In its wake, there have been a number of instances of AI replacing the jobs of journalists, artists, and even fast food workers. This summer even saw the actors’ and writers’ strike roil Hollywood with protections against AI as a primary sticking point.
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“This partnership reflects a recognition of the critical role workers play in the development, deployment and regulation of AI and related technologies,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement. “The labor movement looks forward to partnering with Microsoft to expand workers’ role in the creation of worker-centered design, workforce training and trustworthy AI practices.”
A new poll released by the AFL-CIO that found that 70 percent of workers are concerned about having their jobs displaced by AI. Meanwhile, a recent study from Microsoft found that 70 percent of workers also want to use the emerging technology to lessen their workloads.
This creates a unique opportunity for both workers and the likes of Microsoft to partner in an effort to ensure the best outcomes in the face of unprecedented technology. To that end, the deal focuses on three primary goals: AI education for labor leaders and workers, the inclusion of worker insights on the development of AI technology, and policy development to support workers.
“By working directly with labor leaders, we can help ensure that AI serves the country’s workers,” Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, said in a statement. “This groundbreaking partnership honors the rights of workers, learns from the advice of labor leaders as we develop technology, and helps us provide people with the skills that will become essential in a new AI era.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the landmark AI Act recently passed by the European Union. The policy, which goes into effect in 2025, was finalized on Friday nearly three years after it was first introduced. The act “aims to ensure that fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability are protected from high risk AI,” according to an EU press release.
The details of how exactly they’ll do that are still scant and have yet to be worked out. However, experts and lawmakers are hopeful that it’ll offer some of the most substantial worker protections against AI yet.
Meanwhile, labor leaders have scored big wins in high-profile disputes during the actors’ and writers’ strike, which saw the Writers Guild of America voting to ratify an agreement that prevents AI from being a credited writer and for studios to disclose to writers if any material given to them is written by a bot.
The Screen Actors Guild also approved a new contract that requires mandatory consent from actors for studios to create AI-generated “digital replicas” of their likenesses, and be paid residuals and days worked in any broadcast of their digital replicas.
While these wins show the fortitude of workers and the labor movement against the rise of AI, it doesn’t mean the fight is over. World leaders and policymakers are still largely playing catch-up to the emerging technology, and the livelihoods of workers across many different industries are still very much threatened by AI as corporations look to cash in on the tech trend as quickly as possible.
However, the recent wins by labor unions show that workers are more resilient against the threat of AI than one might have previously thought—and, at the very least, shows they won’t go down without a fight.
