Union Guidelines on AI

The AFL-CIO articulates some worker-rights based guidelines on AI. It’s interesting and worth taking a look at the very least.

There is a path where new technology makes work better and safer, with good union jobs that have fair pay and better job quality. In this vision, working people have economic security, knowing that companies and public agencies must follow rules to make sure technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) is used safely, responsibly, and fairly. These rules put people first, and include worker input in the research and development (R&D) process, during development and deployment, and at the collective bargaining table where they negotiate protections with employers. There is accountability with meaningful enforcement so that employers think twice before designing or using AI systems that hurt workers or communities. Everyday Americans have the power to shape how, when and if new technology is deployed. With workers having a real voice in technology, AI strengthens, rather than weakens democratic institutions, creating an economy that benefits everyone and ensuring public services are not undermined by improper uses of AI. AI should be about benefiting everyone, not just tech billionaires and corporate shareholders. These principles seek to create that future.

Throughout our history, unions have been at the center of technological change, have managed through major transitions, and have fought to ensure that new technologies serve workers and their communities and make jobs better and safer. But AI shouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past, where periods of globalization, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, and automation prioritized short-term gains for companies and investors, and left working families and their communities to bear the cost. There is an opportunity at this moment to avoid previously failed approaches and instead advance new strategies that produce better outcomes for working people and our country.

This vision for a worker-centered technological future does not reflect what we are seeing today as new AI-powered technology is being unleashed on all of us, much of it unregulated and some of it dangerous. Without common-sense rules and a true commitment to boosting worker voice, there is a different future where good jobs, working conditions, safety, economic security, and worker and civil rights are at risk. Already we are seeing threatening uses of AI as we live during a time when elected officials are trusting AI developers – many of them the world’s largest technology companies – to act responsibly when we know they are failing to protect people from harm, with few guardrails in place. There is an urgency to have a meaningful national conversation about how to both propel innovation and adopt sensible policies that protect working people and the general public from the well documented negative consequences of unregulated AI.

Harmful AI is not inevitable – the choices we make today will determine the future of cutting edge technology and work. And doing nothing, as Big Tech special interests would recommend, is a choice – the wrong choice. The AFL-CIO has adopted principles for fair, safe, responsible, and worker-centered AI. We choose a future where progress and opportunity benefit everyone and where AI isn’t used against us or to weaken the protections that a fair and thriving democracy demands.

There’s a bunch of specific guidelines listed as well. Now, does the AFL-CIO have the power to move forward on any of it? Probably not. But you have to do it at least.