Equitable Growth announces funding for research on the impact of AI on U.S. workers and competition

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today announced a new cohort of grantees studying how artificial intelligence and new technology can support workers and promote competition across the U.S. economy. These researchers seek to generate actionable insights that policymakers can use as they navigate the era of AI innovation and emerging technologies and the impact on U.S. workers and market structure.

The grants were awarded to 12 scholars across five different projects in research areas ranging from how U.S. firms are using generative AI to the relationship between AI and worker voice and power to implications for competition dynamics within and beyond digital markets. The grants include:

• Competitive implications of generative AI terms and conditions: An empirical study. University of Miami’s Andres Sawicki and University of Memphis’s John Newman will study the terms and conditions of more than 100 generative AI firms and document the potential legal limitations they impose on how people utilize their AI products and services. These terms could pose significant competition challenges by depriving users of the right to bring antitrust claims against generative AI firms and by imposing noncompete restrictions on users, raising barriers to entry and increasing the likelihood of concentration in AI markets. Newman and Sawicki will perform a systematic review and offer responsive policy proposals.
• Tracking generative AI adoption at work. Vanderbilt University’s Adam Blandin, Harvard University’s David Deming, and Alexander Bick of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will enhance the Real-Time Population Survey, the first nationally representative survey tracking generative AI adoption in U.S. workplaces. They will field three additional surveys over the coming 3 years to track adoption and use of AI tools as the industry changes rapidly, developing innovative questions on how generative AI changes and interacts with workers’ tasks and responsibilities in new ways. Their findings could shed light on the labor market impacts of these new technologies as they adapt to U.S. economic needs, as well as inform workforce development and social insurance policies.
• AI in telecommunications and game development: The role of worker voice in management strategy and job quality. Virginia Doellgast and John E. McCarthy of Cornell University Sean O’Brady of McMaster University will examine how companies in the telecommunications and video game development industries are applying AI and algorithm-based technologies in different service and technical occupations, such as call-center agents, quality assurance workers, and software engineers. These industries are at the forefront of developing new AI-based tools and adopting them in their workplaces, making them an excellent case study for potential impacts more broadly in the labor force, particularly as they relate to worker voice in management strategy and job quality changes. Their findings could shape union strategies and encourage productive and sustainable approaches to AI adoption and deployment.
• Bringing worker voice into the development, design, and use of AI: A case study of the Labor Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente. Cornell University’s Adam Seth Litwin and Ariel Avgar and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Thomas Kochan, using the Labor Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente, seek to determine whether jointly negotiated AI strategies improve job quality and patient care. This unique collaboration between front-line workers and their employer offers an opportunity to assess the effects of integrating worker voice into AI decision-making, given the limits on workers’ input on technology adoption under current U.S. law. As a result, the findings could have broad policy implications for pathways to stronger worker engagement in AI adoption and governance at U.S. firms.
• AI and middle-class mobility at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Brian Justie and Saba Waheed at the University of California, Los Angeles will study how artificial intelligence is being used in ongoing “modernization” initiatives at the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the impacts of these changes on the agency’s workforce. Public-sector employment has long been a pathway to the middle class for many U.S. workers, but the rapid adoption of AI in state-level government initiatives in California raises questions about whether this will continue to be the case. Results of this study will provide policymakers and advocates with a better sense of how to protect workers from the potentially harmful impacts of AI on economic well-being.   

The rapid development and deployment of generative AI and related technologies have the potential to spur innovation and drive growth, yet also could prove to be disruptive across the U.S. labor market. Equitable Growth is excited to continue to fund research that will provide evidence that policymakers can use to ensure the U.S. economy is dynamic and producing gains for all workers. We thank all of our applicants for their dedication to addressing these emerging challenges amid constant innovation in the field of AI and look forward to reviewing the findings of many promising studies as they chart these changes and their impacts on workers and the U.S. economy.

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