Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have reached a union contract concerning the company’s utilization of AI.

The terms of the contract apply to hundreds of employees working at Microsoft’s notable game studio Zenimax. It integrates Microsoft’s six AI principles, highlighting the importance of fairness and empowerment in interactions within the system.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft commits to notifying the union about any AI implementations that could impact the jobs of union members and engages in negotiations to address the effects on employees.

The contract states: “The goal is to ensure tools and technologies benefit rather than harm workers.”

According to the President of CWA, Claude Cummings Jr, this contract should help Microsoft gain a recruiting edge and hopes that it will encourage more workers to join unions, with other companies taking cues from Microsoft’s example.

In collaboration with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Microsoft has forged a partnership to foster an open discussion on the repercussions of AI on labor.

The partnership between the two companies involves more than 60 unions and a whopping 12.5 million workers worldwide. This alliance aims to exchange comprehensive insights into AI technology trends.

The software giant and the federation also seek to incorporate the viewpoints of workers into the development of AI and actively participate in molding public policies that prioritize the technological skills and needs of frontline workers.

The President of AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler, describes this alliance as groundbreaking and historic. She says: “This partnership reflects a recognition of the critical role workers play in the development, deployment, and regulation of AI and related technologies.”

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft’s AI chatbot Copilot, previously known as Bing AI Chat, recently got GPT 4 Turbo’s upgrades for free. OpenAI’s new GPT 4 Turbo was announced during the company’s first developer conference in November with updates such as a much bigger context window at 128,000 input tokens. Its knowledge cut-off date has also been updated to April 2023.

These upgrades are now also available in Microsoft’s Copilot for free, since it is powered by OpenAI’s GPT 4.

Via: The Decoder