As AI begins powering workplaces from ports to casinos, labor unions are notching substantial contract wins and beginning to piece together an AI-focused safety net.

Why it matters: Workers say they're open to AI that improves job outcomes and safety, but around half of American adults tell an Axios Morning Consult poll they're worried that AI will cost them or their loved ones their jobs.

• American workers in global industries face competition from increasingly automated workplaces in Asia, but those workers still lack rights and protections that will be offered to Europeans under the new EU AI Act.

Driving the news: Microsoft and the AFL-CIO struck a deal, announced Monday, to train labor leaders in aspects of AI and make it easier for workers at Microsoft to unionize.

• In a related move, Microsoft also agreed to include AI protections in a contract at the company's ZeniMax game studio, covering several hundred staff.

Zoom out: Microsoft's push for AI dialogue comes in the context of an increasing number of workplace disputes about AI rollouts.

• Unions have used contract negotiations to win rights to transparency, consultation and compensation — as workers across industries and skill levels fear their jobs being eliminated, or that they'll be forced to retrain with little or no support from employers.

Zoom in: Then there's the question of who owns the virtual version of you — and the answer may have decades of economic consequences.

• Companies are developing computer-simulated versions of employees' likenesses and treasuries of their knowledge faster than laws are developing ways to make sure the employees aren't being exploited.
• Striking actors won the right to compensation and limits on the use of digital replicas. Writers won protections against AI rewriting their material.
• Hotel and casino workers in Las Vegas have been winning expanded technology rights from big employers, including advanced warning of new tech rollouts that impact jobs, training for jobs altered by AI and freedom from certain types of surveillance.

Yes, but: Unions are winning battles, but may not be ready to win a war around increasing automation.

• China is moving towards fully automated ports and leading European ports are following suit.
• Workers at 29 West Coast ports sealed a new six-year contract in August, but focused on pay rather than automation, even as advanced automation expands at ports like Long Beach.
• A new Teamster contract covering 340,000 UPS drivers won impressive salary increases but no system for managing a UPS fleet transition to autonomous vehicles that's already underway.

What they're saying: "Bring workers in early in the process," AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler argued earlier this month at a Harvard University event. "Use our expertise to brainstorm, develop and implement new ideas."

• Microsoft President Brad Smith wants AI designed with workers in mind, and told Axios' Maria Curi on Monday that he expects that the EU's AI Act will lead to "a lot of the existing protections that workers have in Europe applied in the context of AI."
• As manufacturing jobs were offshored from the 1980s onwards, many workers missed out on effective retraining, or ended up replacing one solid job with several precarious ones.
• We need "to learn from that experience and really incorporate workers and unions in the solutions to how to deploy this new technology," Amanda Ballantyne, director of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute, tells Axios.

What's next: Shuler told Axios that she's meeting with EU and U.K. counterparts this week to "compare notes" and coordinate a global approach to worker-centered AI policy.

• Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is preparing an AI education bill to expand AI-themed training in technical education institutions.

Google's Play Store violates antitrust laws, a federal jury decided on Monday in a lawsuit filed by Epic Games, reports Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva.

Why it matters: For years, Google and Apple have argued that their app stores' rules and restrictions exist to benefit consumers. This decision, if it survives the appeal process, could upend how the two major mobile operating systems control the distribution of third-party apps on devices.

Details: The jury agreed with Epic Games on every question it was asked to consider:

• "[T]hat Google has monopoly power in the Android app distribution markets and in-app billing services markets, that Google did anticompetitive things in those markets, and that Epic was injured by that behavior," per The Verge.
• "[The jury] decided Google has an illegal tie between its Google Play app store and its Google Play Billing payment services, too, and that its distribution agreement, Project Hug, deals with game developers and deals with OEMs were anticompetitive too."

What they're saying: "Victory over Google! After 4 weeks of detailed court testimony, the California jury found against the Google Play monopoly on all counts. The Court's work on remedies will start in January. Thanks for everyone's support and faith! Free Fortnite!," Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted on X (formerly Twitter) following the verdict.

The other side: "We plan to challenge the verdict," Wilson White, Google's vice president for government affairs and public policy, said in a statement. "The trial made clear that we compete fiercely with Apple and its App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices and gaming consoles. We will continue to defend the Android business model..."

Catch up fast: In 2020, Epic updated its popular Fortnite game on iOS and Android, adding options for players to buy virtual items directly from Epic, bypassing the phone-makers' 30% cut on in-app purchases.

• Apple and Google both kicked Epic off their stores, saying Epic had violated their policies.
• Epic sued both companies, saying their control of the stores on their phones constituted an anti-competitive monopoly.
• Epic lost most of its case against Apple at trial and on appeal — and in September, it asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.

• Trading places: Ross Levinsohn, CEO of The Arena Group, was fired by the publisher of Sports Illustrated after the magazine published AI-generated stories under the bylines of fake authors. Manoj Bhargava is interim CEO. (Deadline)
• As AI enables "conversations" with loved ones who are dead, some take great comfort from the tools, but others are creeped out. (New York Times)
• New York is getting an Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Center, which will become part of the University of Albany's nanotechnology complex. The advanced chipmaking facilities will be funded by New York state, IBM, Micron, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron. (WSJ)
• Disney's head of gaming says the company has ambitious future plans for pairing its top characters with more video game studios. (Axios)

.

You can get better results from ChatGPT by offering it a tip in your prompt. But you don't ever have to pay up.