A century-old philanthropic institution is making a nine-figure wager that it can blunt AI's blow to American workers. The Rockefeller Foundation is launching a three-year, $100 million initiative aimed at communities where automation and artificial intelligence are already eroding jobs—or soon could. Branded the "Big Bet on Good Jobs for America," the effort seeks to help create 1.6 million "good jobs" across up to 250 locations, focusing on sectors like health care and food and nutrition. Rather than picking all the communities upfront, Rockefeller will start with 20 to 30 and expand where experiments show results, reports Axios. Those tests will include things like paying upfront training costs, loosening credential requirements, and bolstering childcare so more people can work.
"America isn't working for everyone because too few Americans are working," Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah said in a statement. "Our new strategy seeks to solve that problem at its root." The initiative is part of an overarching $300 million commitment aimed at America's future that the foundation launched in 2023, notes Quartz. The move underscores how private and local actors may move faster than Washington on AI-related job disruption. "Societies have a choice: either to help people in places adapt or absorb the consequences for decades," said Derek Kilmer, a former Democratic congressman now at the foundation.
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