One of the Democratic Party’s brightest stars is co-founding a group to help with the coming AI jobs earthquake

Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb are co-founding a bipartisan nonprofit, RAISE US, with over $500 million to address potential job losses from AI. The group will partner with states and companies like Amazon and Microsoft to pilot education and training programs, starting in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah.

America has been rushing into an artificial intelligence future https://apnews.com/article/nvidea-huang-artificial-intelligence-8334abcbc6ed8d3d7889b640ec6fa05b without much of a plan to stop what could be catastrophic job losses https://apnews.com/article/ai-layoffs-cisco-meta-block-65f9944fa25306bf5c975dd94805731e . Critics warn of doomsday scenarios https://apnews.com/article/cohere-ai-ceo-aidan-gomez-transformers-71d8618ccc5420aba19871d41eb81615 out of a sci-fi thriller, while backers say AI https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence will generate so much new wealth that no one should worry too much about millions of layoffs https://apnews.com/article/ai-job-impacts-layoffs-amazon-pinterest-dow-7736d042172743301dd7e494813a885d . A new bipartisan nonprofit hopes to ensure that America can realize the economic gains promised by AI without its workers suffering. RAISE US is starting with more than $500 million to deploy on new forms of education and training https://apnews.com/article/ai-anxiety-college-major-4af9a0a8caae1d302acb5aadcf0c68ba , putting a focus on partnering with states and major employers rather than the federal government. Founded by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo https://apnews.com/hub/gina-raimondo , a Democrat, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb https://apnews.com/hub/eric-holcomb , a Republican, the group aims to pilot programs and incentives to help American workers pivot to new careers in an economy that will increasingly be automated by artificial intelligence. “We’re talking about a certain level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy,” Raimondo said in an interview. “If you want to lead the world in AI, you have to take action to make sure our democracy doesn’t crumble.” The programs will first start in Arkansas, Maryland, Utah and Connecticut The nonprofit is initially partnering with officials in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah, along with several of America’s largest companies and charitable organizations. The group intends to develop policies that connect schools more closely to employers, so that layoffs can be replaced by the potential for new jobs with higher incomes. They also are exploring changes to corporate taxes and other incentives with the goal of keeping people working. “Good things tend to happen when you convert have-nots into haves,” Holcomb said. Among the companies serving as anchor partners with RAISE US are Amazon https://fortune.com/company/amazon-com/ , Microsoft https://fortune.com/company/microsoft/ , Anthropic https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-dario-amodei-ai-afeb5279eef406980dffa46ff91495e0 , the OpenAI Foundation and Bank of America https://fortune.com/company/bank-of-america-corp/ . Other employers involved in the project include UPS https://fortune.com/company/ups/ , General Motors, Eli Lilly https://fortune.com/company/eli-lilly/ , Mastercard https://fortune.com/company/mastercard/ , chipmaker AMD https://fortune.com/company/advanced-micro-devices/ , Cisco and IBM https://fortune.com/company/ibm/ . Raimondo, the former Democratic governor of Rhode Island who played a formative role in setting AI policy as the Biden administration’s commerce secretary, will be the nonprofit’s CEO. The advisory board includes former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan https://apnews.com/hub/paul-ryan , billionaire investment manager Stephen Schwarzman https://apnews.com/article/trump-saudi-arabia-artificial-intelligence-data-a36f65bd1c524b2e7ce456e63adaa696 , AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler https://apnews.com/hub/afl-cio and the economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson and Raj Chetty. AI has the potential to displace human workers from factories to offices An April analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that roughly half of U.S. jobs will be reshaped by AI over the next few years. The analysis said that as many as 25 million jobs could be eliminated in the U.S. over the next five years. Goldman Sachs https://fortune.com/company/goldman-sachs-group/ , in March, separately released an estimate that a quarter of U.S. work hours could be automated by AI. More than just a glorified search engine or a generator of video clips and novelty images, AI could fill roads with driverless trucks, create factories staffed by robots and supplant office workers, lawyers and doctors https://apnews.com/article/ai-layoffs-tech-industry-jobs-ece82b0babb84bf11497dca2dae952b5 . President Donald Trump https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump has expressed little anxiety about the possibility of AI displacing human workers. Asked on Tuesday ahead of touring a Mack Trucks factory in Pennsylvania https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mack-truck-pennsylvania-e1038facbf939c5eb97e2462e30b754d if AI could cause truckers to lose their jobs, Trump told a reporter, “Right now, they’re not.” The president has been banking on the buildout of AI data centers https://apnews.com/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-energy-data-centers-f216660b80f992ae303b348dac0b2f87 and power plants to drive hiring and overall economic growth. While AI-related investments https://apnews.com/article/nvidia-artificial-intelligence-infrastructure-9bf560fa2365e4d6b57804438cda579e have helped the economy, manufacturing has shed 68,000 jobs https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-manufacturing-china-030d58f482ce2505721a3ce86820d1da and the trucking transportation sector has cut 28,300 jobs since the start of Trump’s second term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “We have, right now, so many jobs that are going to be available and the biggest problem we have is getting the people,” Trump said. “So we’re really doing spectacular.” Experts say education systems and labor policies aren’t built for an AI economy AI experts have warned of gaps between the transformations that AI could create and a 20th century social safety net of unemployment insurance and four-year college that seems ill-prepared for the scope, scale and speed of the change. “AI is now disrupting multiple sectors simultaneously, faster than any institution can respond,” said Vivienne Ming, a neuroscientist who has written the book, “Robot-Proof: When Machines Have all the Answers, Build Better People https://fortune.com/company/iac/ .” Ming said that she agrees with an argument by economists that the wealth generated by AI could create demand for more workers that could offset any job losses. But she said the skills that matter in an AI economy go beyond professions such as plumbing or construction and involve curiosity and intellectual flexibility. “Neither our education system nor our labor policies are building the foundational human capital that AI-era work actually requires,” she said. Raimondo said the new nonprofit wants to use states as a vehicle for testing ideas that Congress can later embrace as policies, paving the way for the possibility of more profound changes to both the tax code and the educational system. “I don’t have a lot of hope for bold action by Congress in the next few years on this issue, and I don’t think we can wait a few years,” she said. “I also think there are many examples in history that when the federal government does take action, they will look around at what has been working in states. I feel pretty confident that they will look at the work that we’ve done.” Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief . 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