The governor has signed a package of laws on AI in the workplace: an end to emotional monitoring using biometrics; written notice if AI leads to collective redundancies; and human approval of disciplinary measures.
On September 30, Gavin Newsom signed into law several bills designed to protect Californian employees from AI. Employers will no longer be allowed to use systems that deduce a worker's emotional state from their biometric data; AB 1883 also regulates surveillance tools (video, audio, geolocation, time tracking) when they are used to capture neural data or recognize emotions.
A human in the loop for sanctions
SB 947 prohibits relying solely on an automated decision-making system to sanction or dismiss: any decision primarily produced by a machine will have to be reviewed by a person. Companies will also have to notify their employees in writing when a mass dismissal results from the use of AI. Violations can cost up to $500 each, under the control of the state labor commissioner and prosecutors.
The governor, whose term ends in January, justified this voluntarism by the lack of a federal framework, criticizing the Trump administration for not legislating. These laws are in addition to those signed earlier in September on chatbots.
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