California’s new law bans companies from relying on AI to fire workers

California has enacted new legislation to protect workers from AI-powered layoffs and surveillance. Governor Gavin Newsom announced these laws, which prohibit employers from solely relying on AI to make disciplinary or termination decisions, whilst requiring companies to provide transparency if mass layoffs or relocations are driven by AI systems. The legislation also protects against surveillance in workplace bathrooms and prevents lawyers from fully outsourcing core legal work to artificial intelligence.

The new laws were partly motivated by complaints from Meta employees, whose company used biased AI tools that disproportionately targeted workers on medical leave for redundancy. According to human resources research, approximately one in four managers already use AI to help decide which employees to cut "often or all the time," highlighting the urgent need for such protections. Governor Newsom positioned California as a leader in AI regulation, likening the technology to the airline industry in terms of potential dangers to the public.