How might we advance human well being and job access using AI?

Since the launch of JFFLabs’ DC-based Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work in June, Managing Director Alex Swartsel and her “small tiger team,” have grappled with how workers might future-proof themselves amid AI-related job changes. She said this was why Jobs for the Future (JFF) launched the center.

“[The need for a center] was becoming increasingly clear, I think, really over the last year or so as generative AI, ChatGPT and other similar models exploded onto the scene. And I think it started a different kind of conversation about AI,” Swartsel said in a phone interview with Technical.ly. “Not only did it enter the popular imagination in a way that it hadn’t before, but I think even more meaningfully [and] literally put the technology in people’s hands, right, to be able to see much more clearly how AI works and how people can use it for themselves.”

Swartsel noted the need for a human-centric approach to technology in jobs, as well as what she hopes will be technology’s equitable adoption for “women, people of color — or people.”

“I think it’s two things. First and foremost is that we have to keep human beings at the center, right?” said Swartsel “The purpose of this technology and I would argue, really any technology is to advance human wellbeing [and] society goals around equity.”

“And so we have to make sure that this technology is used in a way that is in service of building a better life for people,” she added. “And I think there are a myriad opportunities for how AI can do that. Whether it is, you know, helping people get better at their jobs, saving time, creating opportunities for work to be done and problems to be solved that we never imagined before. But then the minute that we lose sight of the connection between all of that and how it’s helping advance people, we’ve lost the threat of it.”

Swartsel said that keeping humans at the center is a continual theme for the center. She noted that in more cases than not, technology might immediately be adopted by “privileged” individuals with the “greatest access” to it, and not those with “barriers to advancement”. She suggested that the benefits of technology could flow to women, people of color, people with criminal records and those in low-income communities.

“When we think about choices in adopting AI, it is not just about making sure that it’s being adopted in ways that are in service of human beings and human lives and advancement, but to make sure that the adoption is not differentially benefiting one group over others,” said Swartsel. “That means that everyone who’s thinking about adopting this technology needs to ask really tough questions about how it’s showing up in their organizations, how it’s being designed in a way that is responsive to the needs of all of the populations that you’re serving, and that [they’re] measuring outcomes and data.”

Swartsel asserted that AI might speed up the rate of equitable access to quality jobs, which could change what jobs look like in the future.

“There are so many ways in which we think AI can help make the future of work better and brighter. But everything I said before, it has to be true, right?” she said. “Those tools have to be adopted in a way that centers human outcomes [and] that centers equity. Everybody needs to have a seat at the table as those tools are being developed. And we need to be bold in looking for those opportunities.”