Issue Brief: Without Robust Guardrails, AI Harms Workers

Employers are rapidly deploying AI systems across workplaces to monitor, evaluate, manage, and replace workers. Despite grandiose claims that AI systems can deliver unprecedented productivity gains and usher in a golden era of economic growth, evidence shows that the hype surrounding AI is divorced from reality. AI systems, many of which are available to the public, are often error-prone, produce biased results, and may even generate outputs that advise illegal activity. In many cases, these AI uses are occurring without employees’ knowledge or consent and with little or no regulatory oversight. These systems harm workers in many ways. From exploitative surveillance tools and discriminatory management algorithms to dangerous experimentation and job elimination, AI is causing measurable harm to workers and the public. These technologies, left unregulated, intensify workplace injuries, perpetuate racial and gender discrimination, lead to deskilling, threaten intellectual property rights, and undermine the fundamental dignity of work. AI is often deployed as a tool that increases the power of employers at the expense of workers. This is why the AFL-CIO developed a first-of-its-kind national labor AI agenda. The AFL-CIO’s AI Principles center workers and ensure that the benefits of new technologies are widely shared and do not lead to dangerous, discriminatory, and anti-worker outcomes.