Schumer urged to prioritize worker rights in AI policy 

A coalition of tech and workers’ rights advocacy groups asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to prioritize protections for workers in artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, in a letter sent Tuesday. 

The letter sent to Schumer highlighted ways employers can use automated systems to surveil, replace, or hire and fire workers. In some cases, the organizations said workers are already alleging their employers, including Amazon, Google, and Walmart, are monitoring them through AI or other tech tools.

“To guard against this dystopian future, Congress should develop a new generation of economic policies and labor rights to prevent corporations like Amazon from leveraging tech-driven worker exploitation into profit and outcompeting rivals by taking the low road,” the groups wrote. 

“Establishing robust protections related to workplace technology and rebalancing power between workers and employers could reorient the economy and tech innovation toward more equitable and sustainable outcomes,” they added. 

The Hill reached out to spokespeople for Amazon, Google, Walmart, UPS and FedEx for comment in response to the allegations of surveilling workers included in the letter.

The letter was signed by 20 groups, including the Athena Coalition, Public Citizen, Accountable Tech and the Open Markets Institute. 

As Congress drafts regulations, the groups urged lawmakers to prioritize the heath, safety and wages of data workers that develop and train AI. 

They also urged Congress to fortify workers’ rights to organize without “being subject to employer surveillance and union-busting,” and to adopt a framework that addresses the “underlying lack of transparency” and job security in the “at-will employment system in the U.S.”

The letter was sent the same day as the Senate is holding its second AI Insight Forum.

The forums are part of Schumer’s plan to address how the Senate tackles AI regulation by allowing stakeholders to speak directly with senators about the benefits and risks of AI. 

The second forum’s attendees include Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz; NAACP presient and CEO Derrick Johnson; and Center for Democracy and Technology president and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens.