Exclusive / AFL-CIO drafting ‘gold-standard’ AI legislation - Semafor

The AFL-CIO is drafting its own “gold-standard” AI legislation it hopes lawmakers can pass next Congress, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told Semafor.

The bill, which will touch on “worker protections and privacy and data protections” as well as “ideas around economic impacts,” will be the union federation’s “highest priority,” Shuler added.

Shuler has sought to use AI to mobilize voters this election cycle, even as data centers divide organized labor and invite public backlash.

“The changes that are happening in the workplace that feel so out of control [have] people feeling extremely anxious and uncertain, and I think that’s only increased since” June, Shuler said, calling data center pushback “the way that it is manifesting.”

She drew a distinction between data centers and AI-driven job displacement, predicting the latter “will translate into our politics even more than it has” moving forward.

“Data centers will be built,” Shuler said later. “It’s a matter of if they’re built with good union jobs and a high-standard approach.”