Workers wrested a seat at the table on AI this year. Will it be enough?
2023 saw workers demand more say over how artificial intelligence reshapes their industries, scoring unprecedented wins from Hollywood to Silicon Valley.
2023 saw workers demand more say over how artificial intelligence reshapes their industries, scoring unprecedented wins from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. But as the technology barrels forward and regulators race to keep up, labor experts say it’s an open question how effective the push will prove.
Earlier this month, Microsoft and the AFL-CIO, a coalition of dozens of unions representing 12.5 million people, announced a partnership “to expand workers’ role in the creation of worker-centered design, workforce training and trustworthy AI practices,” as AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler described it in a news release.
The deal is short on details but includes “learning sessions” with labor leaders and workers facilitated by Microsoft’s AI experts. It also outlines plans for the two organizations to propose new policies to Congress around AI upskilling that would help create and preserve jobs for humans as the technology expands.
“Education and dialogue are the best starting places,” said Seth Harris, a law and policy professor at Northeastern University who was President Joe Biden’s top labor adviser until last year. “Workers must have power in any relationship that involves them sitting down to discuss difficult topics.”
Harris and other experts praised the move but said its most significant feature was Microsoft’s commitment to remaining neutral in labor organizing, rather than any AI-specific policies. That framework is similar to the one Microsoft agreed to with workers at Activision Blizzard, the videogame maker it acquired in a deal that closed in October.
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