California’s laws aimed at protecting workers from the impacts of artificial intelligence could pave the way for broader workplace safeguards across the US as calls for regulating the technology mount. As the federal government goes hands-off on AI, California is taking the reins to address workers’ biggest fears. On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a suite of new laws that ban bosses from relying entirely on AI to decide whether to fire workers, using it to predict employees’ emotional states or collecting neural data, meaning the information from electrical signals of someone’s brain or nerves.
They also require companies to notify workers if layoffs were caused by AI and prohibit AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms. The new laws come as workers increasingly worry whether AI will take their jobs, lead to discrimination and increase workplace surveillance. Unions, worker advocates and even some lawmakers pushed for the new rules, a regulatory shift for a technology that has largely developed unchecked.
California, home to many of the leading companies developing AI, represents one of the first states to roll out a sweeping set of workplace regulations targeting the technology. And more bills across the county are being lined up for consideration, Gonzalez said. California’s laws aim to target workplace surveillance measures like heat maps that track employees’ movements, including how long they spend in the bathroom, or having their emotional states monitored.
Amazon warehouse workers have previously complained about being timed on their bathroom breaks, for example. And at Kaiser Permanente, nurses have said automated systems rated their tone of voice in patient interactions. But the laws could also prevent future unexpected harms.
Part of the strategy for worker advocates and union groups like the California Federation has been following AI companies’ latest products. The federation also plans to use the momentum to revive issues like requiring employers to disclose when they’re using AI in the workplace, which was a bill that died in the state’s assembly appropriations committee this year. California’s new laws are a key step in gaining regulatory ground for worker advocates, said Robin Feldman, director and founder of AI Law & Innovation Institute at The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
Still, the statutes are somewhat limited in how they are implemented. Only the government can enforce the laws.” The new regulations come amid a backdrop of record AI spending at big tech companies along with massive job cuts. But workers have started pushing back.
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