Microsoft says it’s giving labor leaders a seat at the table for discussions about the development and implementation of artificial intelligence technology.
The software giant, which is a major investor in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, said on Monday that it struck a deal with the AFL-CIO to create an “open dialogue” about AI’s impact on the future of work.
“This partnership is the first of its kind between a labor organization and a technology company to focus on AI,” Microsoft and the AFL-CIO said in a joint statement.
The statement added that the new alliance has three main goals: to share information with labor leaders and workers on AI trends; to incorporate worker perspectives into the development of AI technology; and to help shape public policy that supports the tech skills and needs of frontline workers. It will also feature Microsoft-led training sessions for workers and students on the latest developments around AI, with the first of these educational sessions set to take place in 2024.
“By working directly with labor leaders, we can help ensure that AI serves the country’s workers,” Brad Smith, the vice chair and president of Microsoft, said Monday in a statement.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler added in a statement that the partnership “reflects a recognition of the critical role workers play in the development, deployment and regulation of AI and related technologies.”
“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,” Shuler added.
The announcement comes as business leaders and policymakers continue to mull over wide-ranging potential impacts AI is expected to have on the labor market in the coming years. Prominent voices in the tech industry have long waxed poetic about how AI can help us all work less and more efficiently. But labor leaders and critics of the tech industry, meanwhile, have simultaneously been raising alarm bells over the potential for AI tools to put people out of work. And workers are feeling this anxiety, too: a poll released by the AFL-CIO in August said 70% of respondents expressed concern that AI will displace workers.
Notably, the partnership announced on Monday also includes an agreement that Microsoft provides a “neutrality framework” for future organizing efforts by workers with the AFL-CIO unions and its affiliates. This builds upon the neutrality agreement Microsoft negotiated with the Communication Workers of America Union (CWA) last year as workers at Activision Blizzard organized with the CWA amid Microsoft’s acquisition of the gaming giant.
While the tech sector more broadly has long faced criticism for its hostility to organized labor, Microsoft and the AFL-CIO said in the statement that the new framework “confirms a joint commitment to respect the right of employees to form or join unions” and to “negotiate collective bargaining agreements that will support workers in an era of rapid technological change.”
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