In the age of AI, new report explains how policymakers can empower workers

A new Economic Policy Institute report reviews the likely impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on workers and the economy, evaluates existing federal AI legislation, and provides a road map for how policymakers should approach empowering workers.

There is no compelling evidence that AI is enormously different enough or more powerful than other earlier waves of technological change in its effect on labor markets, according to the report. Because of this, AI is highly unlikely to lead to mass joblessness.

However, the deployment of AI-powered technologies in the workplace has been associated with worker experiences that warrant concern, including discrimination and unsafe working conditions. This has led many policymakers and advocates to put AI on the top of their priority list for drafting new legislation or regulations meant to protect workers.

But as the report explains, these AI policies will fall short of their objectives unless they also address the underlying conditions-such as a lack of worker bargaining power-that enable businesses to deploy AI in this manner. That is why any serious worker-centered AI policy must restore core labor rights, strengthen social insurance programs, and maintain full employment.

"U.S. workers would not be well served by having policymakers, researchers, and advocates focus disproportionate amounts of attention on AI deployment at the expense of other crucially needed reforms. It would serve the interests of exploitative employers to lose focus on the longstanding systemic reforms that are needed to restore worker power and give workers a voice in the use of AI," said Celine McNicholas, co-author of the report and EPI's director of policy and government affairs/general counsel.