Proactive Investors - Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) on Monday announced that it and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) have entered into a new partnership aimed at anticipating the needs of workers in the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI).
The AFL-CIO is made up of 60 labor unions representing 12.5 million workers.
The goals of the partnership are to deliver AI education for workers and students starting with sessions in the winter of 2024, consider worker perspectives and expertise in the development of AI, and help shape public policy that supports the skills needed to thrive in an AI-powered economy, they said.
Building on a previous agreement between the Communications Workers of America Union and Microsoft, it provides a neutrality framework for future work organizing by AFL-CIO affiliate unions.
The company and the union said this framework is a joint commitment to respect the rights of employees to form or join unions, to develop positive and cooperative labor-management relationships, and to negotiate collective bargaining agreements that will support workers through rapid technological change.
“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,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a statement.
At an event in Washington announcing the partnership, Smith said he cannot say that AI will never displace jobs.
“AI is well-designed to accelerate and eliminate some of the parts of people’s jobs that you might consider to be drudgery. By working directly with labor leaders, we can help ensure that AI serves the country’s workers,” he said, as reported by Bloomberg.
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said the partnership was 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 said.
“Microsoft’s neutrality framework and embrace of workers’ expertise signals that this new era of AI can also catalyze a new era of productive labor-management partnerships.”
Microsoft shares traded down 1.6% at about US$368 shortly before noon on Monday.
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