Anthropic, OpenAI join $500 million AI jobs push
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Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb are launching Raise Us, a $500 million effort — with help from Anthropic and OpenAI's Foundation — to help states and employers prepare workers for an AI economy that could reshape jobs far beyond tech.
Why it matters: Competing AI labs are coming together to fund an effort aimed at addressing the labor market hit that their own technology could cause.
The big picture: Several tech companies have launched initiatives aimed at recruiting and training blue-collar workers who can facilitate data center builds.
- Raise Us focuses on AI's impact on the broader workforce, with a wider reach through public and private partnerships.
Zoom in: Corporate participants — who will also fund the effort — include Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Bank of America, Eli Lilly and more, as well as various state governments, educators and philanthropists.
- The group has already secured $500 million and hopes to raise $1 billion.
- The money will support programs including a startup accelerator for displaced workers learning how to start their own businesses or paid service years to give high school graduates a path toward AI-related careers.
- The goal is to create a playbook states and employers can copy as AI reshapes jobs.
How it works: The initiative will start in four states, where governments and policymakers will work with employers to test policies including wage insurance, incentives for companies to retrain workers instead of laying them off, AI-powered career coaching and short-term credential programs.
- Raise Us will also include a policy lab studying AI's impact on the labor market and recommending possible solutions. That part of the effort will not receive corporate funding.
What they're saying: The initiative comes after Raimondo said an AI economy crisis is coming and "there's no obvious solution," in an op-ed for the New York Times.
- "No single company or sector can solve the workforce challenges," Justin Spelhaug, president of Microsoft Elevate, said in a statement. David Zapolsky, Amazon's chief global affairs and legal officer, added this program is how you "make this transition work for everyone, not just a few."
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has repeatedly doubled down on similar concerns that AI could cause a "white-collar bloodbath," which he first shared with Axios.
Zoom out: Other tech companies have launched similar efforts in recent weeks, though they're primarily focused on blue-collar work.
- Google is investing $50 million in an initiative for skilled trades.
- Meta is investing $115 million in a training program that guarantees a data center job in the end.
- Autodesk launched a $350 million commitment focused on broader preparation for what it calls "AI jobs."
Yes, but: The tech industry has launched similar workforce-transition efforts before with mixed success.
- Companies like Amazon have spent more than $1 billion on upskilling and retraining programs while simultaneously accelerating warehouse automation and robotics deployment.
- A recent study of 23 million participants in federal workforce programs found that retraining rarely moved workers into less automation-exposed jobs.
The other side: AI investor Chamath Palihapitiya said the job apocalypse is overblown in an interview for "The Axios Show."
- The doomsday AI narrative may make for an "incredible headline," he argued, but the technology could ultimately create more work than it destroys.
The bottom line: Tech companies and donors are throwing millions of dollars at AI's labor problem, but it's still unclear what initiatives will move the needle.
