Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Microsoft President Brad Smith and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler are both keeping a close eye on the EU AI Act's provisions on workforce issues, they told Axios in a joint interview Monday.
Driving the news: The pair discussed the landmark bill after briefing Axios on a new AI partnership between them to share information, incorporate workers' perspectives and shape public policy that supports the needs of frontline workers.
- Shuler said she's meeting with EU and UK counterparts this week to "compare notes" to coordinate a global approach to worker-centered AI policy.
- Smith said he expects the act will build on the European privacy law that companies already must comply with: "My hunch would be that we'll see a lot of the existing protections that workers have in Europe applied in the context of AI."
Catch up fast: The EU AI Act says AI systems falling into certain workforce-related areas are categorized as "high risk" and will have to be registered in a database, including those used for educational institutions or recruitment and for border control management or law enforcement.
What they're saying: Smith and Shuler agreed it's too soon to judge whether the EU AI Act will be effective for workers and, reflecting on the U.S. process, said it's important to have labor seated at the table for creating guardrails.
- "We're probably not going to see eye to eye on everything, but we think it's more powerful when labor and management are coming at this together," Shuler said.
The EU has faced some criticism from companies for going too far on regulation, but Smith said officials there have taken the time to understand the technology.
- "I think the EU did spend a lot of time listening and learning. There was a real effort these past several months to adapt to the advances in generative AI."
Smith predicted Congress would pass AI legislation by 2025, which would be around the time the EU AI Act takes effect.
- In the meantime, he said, the White House's AI executive order and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's AI Insight Forums would eventually yield ideas.
- Shuler said the AFL-CIO is in "constant communication" with Sen. Maria Cantwell regarding her planned AI education bill pushing for career and technical education.
- "We keep saying that we need multiple pathways to good careers. Not everyone is going to college."
Of note: Microsoft is uniquely positioned to influence OpenAI's approach to AI and labor.
- Smith: "They're equally focused on trying to take stock of all of these issues to learn as well."
- "At Microsoft, we're also creating a platform for a lot of other AI models, open source models. Broad education and community building — I think all of that connects with the kinds of things we're trying to do in the industry itself."
- Shuler said the drama that unfolded on OpenAI's board "was an example of this notion that collective action is powerful, and no matter what form it takes, there's safety in numbers and that's what the union movement stands for."
