READOUT: Acting Secretary Su unveils Artificial Intelligence Best Practices to improve job quality; safeguard workers’ rights, well-being

WASHINGTON – Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su hosted an unveiling of the U.S. Department of Labor’s AI Best Practices, a comprehensive roadmap designed to ensure artificial intelligence enhances job quality and safeguards workers’ rights and well-being. 

The online event, which took place on Oct. 16, 2024, brought together labor, business, non-profit and government leaders to focus on the critical importance of ethical use of AI as its impact continues to grow in workplaces throughout the nation. President Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence emphasizes that the responsible development and use of AI require a commitment to supporting America’s workers. The AI Best Practices are an important step towards promoting worker well-being when AI is used in the workplace. 

Acting Secretary Su emphasized how artificial intelligence will transform jobs and the workplace. Underscoring the department’s mission to ensure responsible AI use, the Acting Secretary said: “We have a shared responsibility to ensure that AI is used to expand equality, advance equity, develop opportunity and improve job quality.”

The department’s best practices are designed to guide employers and developers as they develop and deploy AI so that workers are empowered and workplace conditions are improved. 

Leaders echoed the importance of responsible AI development and deployment in promoting innovation and worker protection.

“Workers are the experts in how technology impacts their work. Unions give them a seat at the table so that we design technology that enhances their jobs, not degrades them,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The Department of Labor’s new AI best practices are an important new tool to help employers understand the value of engaging their workers to ensure that these technologies actually improve productivity, work and workers’ lives.”  

“We applaud the Department of Labor’s best practices on AI and worker well-being,” said Partnership on AI CEO Rebecca Finlay. “These decision-making guides build on our Shared Prosperity Guidelines, co-created with our multistakeholder community. Together, we are working to ensure that the benefits of AI are broadly shared so we have a future of work that works for all of us.”

“We must ensure that AI serves the country’s workers. Incorporating worker perspectives is an important part of the AI principles, part of our company approach, and a key component of our partnership with AFL-CIO. We applaud Acting Secretary Su’s leadership in implementing these principles and we look forward to continuing this discussion,” said Microsoft Corp. Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Amy Pannoni.

“The advantages gained from AI need to be fairly distributed among patients, payors, healthcare workers and providers, with special attention to workers who might see their work transformed by the new technology,” said SEIU United Healthcare Workers’ Research Director and Assistant to the President for Strategic Campaigns David Miller. 

Learn more about the department’s AI Principles and Best Practices.