AI Workforce PREPARE Act improves the federal government’s ability to assess AI’s jobs impact
On Thursday, Americans for Responsible Innovation endorsed the AI Workforce PREPARE Act, a new bill from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN). Cosponsored by Sens Maggie Hassan (D-NH), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Jon Husted (R-OH), the legislation aims to enhance federal agencies’ ability to assess AI’s impact on the workforce. The new bill would establish an AI Workforce Research Hub at the Department of Labor (DOL), incentivize innovation in workforce impact forecasting, enhance expertise at DOL, and improve data collection on AI and the workforce.
“Our workforce is potentially facing a large-scale disruption as AI is integrated in our economy,” said ARI President Brad Carson. “In order to respond effectively with programs that support workers during an era of unprecedented automation, we need better data. Policymakers need to know what jobs are being eliminated, what new work is being created, and how we can train a workforce prepared for the future. The AI Workforce PREPARE Act gets right to the heart of that issue by supporting high-quality economic data collection, improving forecasting on AI’s impact, and setting up an AI Workforce Research Hub at the Department of Labor.”
In September, ARI led a coalition of over 40 leading economists and economic policy experts to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, urging the Department of Labor (DOL) to gather more high-quality data on AI’s impact on jobs. The letter, signed by four Nobel laureates and two former chairs of the Federal Reserve, comes on the heels of new research suggesting AI is already reducing job opportunities for early-career workers in areas most exposed to AI. The letter notes that better data collection is critical not only to understanding AI’s impact but also to respond and train U.S. workers for new jobs in an AI-integrated economy.
For more on AI’s emerging workforce impact, check out ARI’s recent virtual panel featuring economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Bharat Chandar. The event explores new research from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab exposing a dramatic decline in job opportunities for certain early-career workers.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.