Microsoft companions with labor group to quell issues about AI taking jobs

Microsoft on Monday announced a partnership with a serious labor group, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million employees, to create an open dialogue on the way forward for synthetic intelligence and quell fears that AI will exchange jobs.

The partnership with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) comes as Microsoft and different AI suppliers face elevated concern from labor teams and regulatory our bodies over how AI will displace employees.

The alliance will embody AI studying classes for employees, “experiential workshops” targeted on area of interest AI profession alternatives from 2024 to 2026, and Microsoft-hosted labor summits to include suggestions from labor leaders and employees. 

It has three targets:

• “Sharing in-depth information with labor leaders and workers on AI technology trends.”
• “Incorporating worker perspectives and expertise in the development of AI technology.
• “Serving to form public coverage that helps the expertise expertise and desires of frontline employees.”

AI providers have increased their responses to public pressure and questioning on how their technologies may impact workers. That may be partly due to increasing fears that new technologies could be used to perform jobs currently performed by humans. A September Gallup poll showed that one in five college-educated workers worries tech could make their jobs obsolete, up seven percentage points from 2021.

Amazon said in October it would work with MIT to “to higher perceive how staff and organizations are affected” by AI and robotics as Amazon staff’ expressed rising concern over pressure to perform and meet quotas,

In Could, IBM announced plans to replace about 8,000 jobs with AI, but CEO Arvind Krishna told CNBC the company is prioritizing “massively upskilling all of our staff on AI,” and he foresees the technology mostly replacing back-office functions.

The tech giants’ moves come alongside the threat of increasing regulation. In October, President Biden’s first-ever executive order on AI included a section on supporting workers amid AI advancement, namely by producing a report on the potential labor market implications of AI and studying the ways the federal government could support workers affected by a disruption to the labor market.

The executive order also outlined a plan to develop principles and best practices to “mitigate the harms and maximize the advantages of AI for employees,” with a concentrate on job displacement, labor requirements and office fairness.