Tech giants fund $500M initiative to tackle AI workforce disruption as job losses loom

Big Companies Aim to Ease A.I. Transition for American Workers

OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon and Microsoft have signed on to an effort led by Gina Raimondo, a former commerce secretary. Congress has failed to address the work force disruption that artificial intelligence could generate. The White House, excited about the upside for stocks and investment, has downplayed the potential for widespread job losses. Now, amid growing public anger over A.I. and a debate over how to regulate it, a group of employers, state governors and foundations has raised $500 million to try to answer some of those questions themselves. The funders include A.I. labs preparing to go public, like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as established corporate giants such as Bank of America and Amazon. Their new nonprofit, called Raise Us, is led by Gina Raimondo, a former commerce secretary and Rhode Island governor who since leaving office has called for companies and the government to do more to orient American workers in a new A.I. era. "This is an independent effort," Ms. Raimondo said. "It's the first one I know of where competitors in the tech industry have put aside their competition to say, 'We're going to write big checks and, in the service of our country, do what we can to figure out this transition.'" Estimates of the magnitude of job dislocation in store for the American work force vary widely, from half of all entry-level white-collar jobs to a few thousand jobs here and there. Although layoffs are currently very low across the economy, the employee ratings site Glassdoor has found that worker sentiment toward A.I. has been worsening. Companies have made headlines by citing A.I. as a reason for deep job cuts. They include Workday and IBM, which are part of the new nonprofit, as well as Meta and Oracle, which are not. The organization will work primarily with governors, starting with those in Utah, Arkansas, Maryland and Connecticut. The theory: States generally control their community college systems, which can translate work force policy through course offerings and industry partnerships. The bulk of the budget will fund pilot programs overseen by about 15 staff members and consultants. For example, Maryland will establish a "service year" for recent high school graduates to provide experience in fields where there are shortages, such as health care. In other states, Raise Us hopes to offer "wage insurance" for workers who take lower-paying jobs rather than dropping out of the work force entirely. The group plans to furnish technical assistance for companies that want to retain workers as A.I. changes their roles, rather than eliminating them. Microsoft, one of the companies backing the organization, said it had already found a promising model: cross-training its entry-level lawyers in different parts of the organization and equipping them with A.I. skills in order for them to be repositioned as technology evolves. "You can think of doing that with almost any job we have," said Brad Smith, vice chair and president at Microsoft. "It creates an opportunity to transfer people from jobs that are being eliminated to jobs that are being created." Retraining displaced workers has always been a difficult task, and historically not a very successful one. Ms. Raimondo called past efforts "ineffective." Sam Manning, a senior research fellow with GovAI, a think tank, said the new group's work offered a new opportunity to learn about what could work best. "This model -- of let's work within states and try to do pilots and demonstration programs, build more evidence, learn what works for different types of workers with different constraints -- does seem to me like a pretty good thing to do," Mr. Manning said. Congress has slashed funding for its flagship work force development law since passing it in 1973. Planned overhauls of the statute have sputtered out. Research has found that while federal work force programs do help place workers in new jobs, their long-term success is limited by the lack of high-paying positions for workers without college degrees. Jane Oates ran the Labor Department's Employment and Training Administration under President Barack Obama. Despite funding cuts, she said, states as disparate as Texas and Massachusetts have found ways to raise private capital and work with employers to meet their talent needs. "I don't know that she's been anywhere else to look at the amazing, innovative things that are done in small and large places around the country," Ms. Oates said of Ms. Raimondo. Part of the Raise Us mission is to adapt existing budgets to the particular challenges of A.I.-driven disruption. The nonprofit includes a policy lab, funded by philanthropies rather than corporations, that will incubate new ideas that governments may carry out down the line. Ms. Raimondo also serves as a chair on a commission, organized by the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute and the left-leaning Urban Institute, that will come up with policy recommendations to address the effect of A.I. on the work force and the demands it may create. That effort is funded by Google. On the policy front, the groups join a crowded landscape. The air has been thick in recent months with proposals for minimizing the potential downsides of A.I. while harnessing its benefits. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has suggested confiscating half of the stock value of top A.I. companies and depositing it in a publicly owned fund. Others have floated the idea of shifting the tax burden from payroll taxes to the computing power that is necessary to run sophisticated A.I. models. The Raise Us board includes Liz Shuler, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the labor federation, which has a technology institute that has emphasized protections for workers as A.I. develops. Ms. Raimondo's initiatives, underwritten by corporations that have much at stake, may seem ill positioned to make recommendations that would burden the engines of America's A.I. dominance. But Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy who is part of the joint American Enterprise Institute-Urban Institute commission, said its members would not shy away from doing so. "I don't think we're going to hesitate to talk about resources," Mr. Holzer said. "If the A.I. companies and tech companies start making money hand over fist, there might be an excess-profits way of dealing with that." Ms. Raimondo and her colleagues are not fans of a universal basic income, an idea that has gained popularity in Silicon Valley as an answer to job disruption. They emphasize that work provides more than just wages, and plan to focus on helping people find pathways to new jobs. But it's unclear whether A.I. will create jobs at the rate that it will destroy them. Jack Malde studied work force policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center and is now going to work for the Windfall Trust, another A.I.-focused think tank. He said long-term income support might be necessary, even if better models for transitioning workers were found. "The truth is, there's still a lot of uncertainty," Mr. Malde said. "What we think is resilient now might not be resilient later. We're not going to get everything right, so we're going to need those strong safety-net programs." Eventually, the backers of Raise Us think, federal action will be necessary to replicate successful policies across states and employers who aren't early adopters. Ms. Raimondo said she had been in touch with the acting labor secretary, Keith Sonderling, whose department is establishing its own data hub for A.I. effects. But at the moment, she thinks that there's no time to wait for alignment from Washington. As a historical parallel, she cited the Committee for Economic Development, an organization formed by big businesses in 1942 with the goal of absorbing American soldiers back into the economy after World War II ended and defense production was scaled back. It encouraged ways to fight inflation and foster full employment, helping to head off postwar stagnation. "I think this technology will lead to more productive people, new jobs and new industries, and I want to get there," Ms. Raimondo said. "But I also worry about the transition, and a window where people could get hurt. The politics could get uglier. So I just want to get started now to build the infrastructure to be prepared to manage the transition."

Everyone is worried about AI killing jobs. She's testing a fix-it plan.

Gina Raimondo is leading a broad coalition to fight AI steamrolling through the job market. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post) Gina Raimondo says her family never fully recovered after her father lost his Bulova watch factory job in the 1980s to economic forces beyond his control. Decades later, the former Biden administration commerce secretary and Rhode Island governor is trying to stop artificial intelligence from inflicting similar pain on families across the country. Like a majority of the American public, Raimondo worries about AI's potentially destructive ripple effects on jobs and society. Along with a growing number of elected officials, corporations and tech industry attention seekers, she believes that she has a blueprint to protect Americans from potentially job-killing AI and help them harness the technology in their careers. Raimondo's plan stands out because of the broad coalition she's built and for the sweeping set of policy fixes she's proposing. On Thursday, Raimondo unveiled what she described as the first real-world laboratory to test policies that could AI-proof the U.S. workforce. The new nonprofit, Raise Us, has financial backing from high-wattage philanthropists including Melinda French Gates, Laurene Powell Jobs and Stephen Schwarzman. Rival AI developers Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI's nonprofit parent are teaming up with Raise Us, too. (Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, which has a content partnership with OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT.) Raimondo wants to channel what she called "hysteria" about AI killing jobs into focused pilot projects with states, employers and educational institutions that can settle debates over what works and doesn't to help workers thrive in an AI economy. Her project's initial pilots include the expansion of a Peace Corps-style service program in Maryland to provide work experience, including to young people, a group that may be in the first wave of AI-influenced job struggles. "This is going to be one of the single most important issues facing our country in the years ahead," Raimondo said in an interview. "If you don't have a transition plan for the people, it won't go well," she said. It's a warning Raimondo has delivered to technology and business executives, who she said will face huge blowback if they replace mass numbers of employees with AI. "Most companies will be very hurt by a populist revolt or political violence that this would cause," Raimondo said. Surveys indicate that majorities of Americans have soured on the economy and believe that AI will harm society. The involvement of figures from the political right with Raise Us, including Schwarzman and Eric Holcomb, the former Republican governor of Indiana who is a co-chair with Raimondo, reflects the bipartisan sense of urgency to figure out how all Americans might win rather than lose from an AI future. Raise Us could inject some hard data into the debate over what to do about the potential impacts of AI on American workers. It could also shape the next chapter of Raimondo's political career. She was considered as a potential running mate for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024, but she said she won't run for president in 2028. Raimondo's biggest challenge may not be that too few people care about AI's risks to jobs, but that too many do. In addition to the proposals backed by dozens of politicians on both sides of the aisle and myriad business executives, at least 180 state bills have been introduced this year to regulate AI use in workplaces or address technology-related job losses, according to the University of California at Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Xavier de Souza Briggs, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, called many of policy proposals related to AI and jobs "nonserious," despite the pressing nature of the challenge. Programs to retrain workers or help them develop AI skills are at the heart of many proposals from elected officials, philanthropic groups and companies including Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. AI companies have launched plans to coach professionals, including schoolteachers, to use AI effectively or retrain workers to help build data centers. But many economists say job training doesn't have a good track record and that American workers have grown skeptical of such initiatives after decades of losing out to automation or outsourcing. Overpromises about job retraining are felt "deep in people's bones," Briggs said. Raimondo cited successes from job training programs in her six years as governor of Rhode Island, but she acknowledged the broader failures of that approach. "Training is a piece of the puzzle, but it is not the whole solution," she said. She said Raise Us will take a different approach by testing overlapping worker resilience concepts at the same time and will rigorously measure the results. In another of the pilot projects announced so far, Raise Us and the state government of Arkansas are testing software designed to direct and prepare people for roles that employers want to fill. Sam Manning, a senior research fellow at technology policy organization GovAI, praised experiments to help remake careers upended by AI. But Manning, who isn't involved with Raise Us, also said it's hard to fix the emotional toll when people's careers or professional dreams are steamrolled. "Technocratic policy solutions won't always be able to address the very personal and highly varied experiences that people feel when they lose their jobs," Manning said. Raimondo estimated that to educate herself about AI's effects on the labor market and economy, she has had 300 conversations in the past year with members of Congress, governors, college presidents, economists, small-business owners, AI executives and business leaders. Some of the discussions have been feisty, according to Raimondo and David Cutler, a Harvard University economist and former professor of Raimondo's who has participated in some of those exchanges. She said some of her interlocutors have said she is not giving American workers enough credit for their resilience, while others told her she was naive about the ability to head off widespread job losses. After Raimondo gave a TED Talk in April outlining ideas to help Americans' transition to an AI economy, she said Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings called to chime in. Hastings, who is also on the board of Anthropic, quoted Raimondo a line from "Jaws" -- "You're gonna need a bigger boat" -- and predicted that in a decade, the scale of AI job losses would overwhelm her efforts to redirect and retrain Americans. A person close to Hastings confirmed the substance of the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said Raimondo has the credibility to find common ground even with people who are not ideologically aligned. He agrees with her that elected officials have a role to play in maximizing the good from AI and minimizing the harm. And he said Raimondo developed a reputation in the Biden administration for bridging political divides. "The consensus among Republican governors is she was the one everyone liked to work with," Cox said. Raimondo said the United States has no choice but to pool a broad variety of ideas and expertise given the scale of disruption that AI could bring. "I want to bring to the table capital, employer commitment, a team that knows what they're doing -- and let's get to the business of trying things," Raimondo said. She imagines that this White House or the next -- run by a Democrat, she hopes -- looks to Raise Us for proven playbooks if AI starts to spike unemployment. "I guarantee you they're going to look at our pilots," Raimondo said. "Or I could fail."

Anthropic joins Sec. Gina Raimondo's AI labor efforts

Why it matters: Competing AI labs are coming together to fund an effort aimed at addressing the labor market hit that their own technology could cause. The big picture: Several tech companies have launched initiatives aimed at recruiting and training blue-collar workers who can facilitate data center builds. * RAISE US focuses on AI's impact on the broader workforce, with a wider reach through public and private partnerships. Zoom in: Corporate participants -- who will also fund the effort -- include Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Bank of America, Eli Lilly and more, as well as various state governments, educators and philanthropists. * The group has already secured $500 million and hopes to raise $1 billion. * The money will support programs including a startup accelerator for displaced workers learning how to start their own businesses or paid service years to give high school graduates a path towards AI-related careers. * The goal is to create a playbook states and employers can copy as AI reshapes jobs. How it works: The initiative will start in four states, where governments and policymakers will work with employers to test policies including wage insurance, incentives for companies to retrain workers instead of laying them off, AI-powered career coaching and short-term credential programs. * RAISE US will also include a policy lab studying AI's impact on the labor market and recommending possible solutions. That part of the effort will not receive corporate funding. What they're saying: The initiative comes after Raimondo said an AI economy crisis is coming and "there's no obvious solution," in an op-ed for The New York Times. * "Millions of Americans -- from white collar to blue collar, entry level to executive -- may soon find themselves jobless and without prospects," she notes. * Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has repeatedly doubled down on similar concerns that AI could cause a "white-collar bloodbath," which he first shared with Axios. Zoom out: Other tech companies have launched similar efforts in recent weeks, though they're primarily focused on blue-collar work. * Google is investing $50 million in an initiative for skilled trades. * Meta is investing $115 million in a training program that guarantees a data center job in the end. * Autodesk launched a $350 million commitment focused on broader preparation for what they call "AI jobs." Yes, but: The tech industry has launched similar workforce-transition efforts before with mixed success. * Companies like Amazon have spent more than $1 billion on upskilling and retraining programs while simultaneously accelerating warehouse automation and robotics deployment. * A recent study of 23 million participants in federal workforce programs found that retraining rarely moved workers into less automation-exposed jobs. The other side: AI investor Chamath Palihapitiya said the job apocalypse is overblown in an interview for "The Axios Show." * The doomsday AI narrative may make for an "incredible headline," he argued, but the technology could ultimately create more work than it destroys. The bottom line: Tech companies and donors are throwing millions of dollars at AI's labor problem, but it's still unclear what initiatives will move the needle.

AI Is Plowing Through the Workplace. This New Group Wants to Help People Adapt and Have Jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America has been rushing into an artificial intelligence future without much of a plan to stop what could be catastrophic job losses. Critics warn of doomsday scenarios out of a sci-fi thriller, while backers say AI will generate so much new wealth that no one should worry too much about millions of layoffs. A new bipartisan nonprofit hopes to ensure that America can realize the economic gains promised by AI without its workers suffering. RAISE US is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training, putting a focus on partnering with states and major employers rather than the federal government. Founded by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, the group aims to pilot programs and incentives to help American workers pivot to new careers in an economy that will increasingly be automated by artificial intelligence. "We're talking about a certain level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy," Raimondo said in an interview. "If you want to lead the world in AI, you have to take action to make sure our democracy doesn't crumble." The programs will first start in Arkansas, Maryland, Utah and Connecticut The nonprofit is initially partnering with officials in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah, along with several of America's largest companies and charitable organizations. The group intends to develop policies that connect schools more closely to employers, so that layoffs can be replaced by the potential for new jobs with higher incomes. They also are exploring changes to corporate taxes and other incentives with the goal of keeping people working. "Good things tend to happen when you convert have-nots into haves," Holcomb said. Among the companies serving as anchor partners with RAISE US are Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation and Bank of America. Other employers involved in the project include UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, chipmaker AMD, Cisco and IBM. Raimondo, the former Democratic governor of Rhode Island who played a formative role in setting AI policy as the Biden administration's commerce secretary, will be the nonprofit's CEO. The advisory board includes former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, billionaire investment manager Stephen Schwarzman, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and the economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson and Raj Chetty. AI has the potential to displace human workers from factories to offices An April analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that roughly half of U.S. jobs will be reshaped by AI over the next few years. The analysis said that as many as 25 million jobs could be eliminated in the U.S. over the next five years. Goldman Sachs, in March, separately released an estimate that a quarter of U.S. work hours could be automated by AI. More than just a glorified search engine or a generator of video clips and novelty images, AI could fill roads with driverless trucks, create factories staffed by robots and supplant office workers, lawyers and doctors. President Donald Trump has expressed little anxiety about the possibility of AI displacing human workers. Asked on Tuesday ahead of touring a Mack Trucks factory in Pennsylvania if AI could cause truckers to lose their jobs, Trump told a reporter, "Right now, they're not." The president has been banking on the buildout of AI data centers and power plants to drive hiring and overall economic growth. While AI-related investments have helped the economy, manufacturing has shed 68,000 jobs and the trucking transportation sector has cut 28,300 jobs since the start of Trump's second term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "We have, right now, so many jobs that are going to be available and the biggest problem we have is getting the people," Trump said. "So we're really doing spectacular." Experts say education systems and labor policies aren't built for an AI economy AI experts have warned of gaps between the transformations that AI could create and a 20th century social safety net of unemployment insurance and four-year college that seems ill-prepared for the scope, scale and speed of the change. "AI is now disrupting multiple sectors simultaneously, faster than any institution can respond," said Vivienne Ming, a neuroscientist who has written the book, "Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People." Ming said that she agrees with an argument by economists that the wealth generated by AI could create demand for more workers that could offset any job losses. But she said the skills that matter in an AI economy go beyond professions such as plumbing or construction and involve curiosity and intellectual flexibility. "Neither our education system nor our labor policies are building the foundational human capital that AI-era work actually requires," she said. Raimondo said the new nonprofit wants to use states as a vehicle for testing ideas that Congress can later embrace as policies, paving the way for the possibility of more profound changes to both the tax code and the educational system. "I don't have a lot of hope for bold action by Congress in the next few years on this issue, and I don't think we can wait a few years," she said. "I also think there are many examples in history that when the federal government does take action, they will look around at what has been working in states. I feel pretty confident that they will look at the work that we've done."