Can new coalition save US jobs from AI?

A bipartisan coalition of tech companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, launched a $500 million initiative called Raise Us to help American workers adapt to AI. Led by former governors Gina Raimondo and Eric Holcomb, the nonprofit aims to prevent layoffs and redeploy employees through pilot programs in four states.

Tech companies are banding together to address the mess their tech is poised to create. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of tech companies, led by former governors, Democrat Gina Raimondo and Republican Eric Holcomb, launched a $500 million initiative called Raise Us https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/500-million-ai-jobs-push-launches-with-bipartisan-backing-00975439 , aimed at helping the American workforce adapt to AI. The backers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, and will leverage both private and philanthropic capital. - The nonprofit will work with these backers to design programs that help them retain and redeploy employees https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/gina-raimondo-eric-holcomb-launch-100000280.html , measuring its success by avoiding layoffs and helping workers land and keep jobs. - The organization operates across four core areas: An employer coalition with a "direct line of sight" into how jobs are changing, state partnerships for workforce policy and programming, education and training for an AI-enabled workforce, and a policy lab to adapt and design new regulations. - The funds will initially help support pilot programs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah to ease the economic disruption for workers who have been impacted by the tech. Raimondo, who will serve as CEO of the initiative, said in a statement https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/gina-raimondo-eric-holcomb-launch-100000280.html that if powerful frontier AI systems leave Americans behind, it won't result in our leadership in AI. Rather, we will have "automated our own decline." "America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy — and we cannot lead without one," said Raimondo. In a LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7475910942409584640/ , Holcomb called preempting AI's impact an "all-hands-on-deck moment," adding that the initiative "gives state leaders a playbook that connects more Americans with the skills and careers needed in the years ahead.” The coalition provides yet another harbinger that AI is leading workforces towards upheaval. Study after study has been published attempting to estimate the damage https://www.thedeepview.com/articles/the-ai-layoff-panic-is-outrunning-the-data . While some forecast massive disruption, others estimate that the impact won't be nearly as severe as some claim. In either case, major companies are now using AI to justify cutting large swathes of their workforce https://www.thedeepview.com/articles/why-tech-companies-jumped-the-gun-on-ai-layoffs , including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Block, and others. Our Deeper View It's noble that an initiative like this is attempting to get ahead of AI-inflicted damage on jobs and the economy. Participation from major AI firms, too, is a sign that these tech companies are aware of the harm that could result from the tech they are building and promoting. It's something several of these firms have called out before, such as OpenAI launching the Economic Research Exchange https://www.thedeepview.com/articles/openai-confronts-its-own-disruption-amid-ipo-filing to study the economic impacts of the technology, and Anthropic releasing policy proposals https://www.thedeepview.com/articles/anthropic-policy-push-reflects-its-growing-dilemma aimed at addressing potential disruption. In the immediate term, scaling the deployment of their technologies would only benefit their bottom lines, even if it potentially wipes out jobs. But in the long term, these companies are clearly aware that continuing down that path will only make them the architects of their own downfall.