Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that California has enacted legislation aimed at protecting workers from AI-driven layoffs and surveillance, marking some of the first laws in the country to grant employees rights over how artificial intelligence is used in the workplace.
The legislation does not restrict companies from using AI to replace workers outright. Instead, it targets how AI is deployed in employment decisions and monitoring. The new laws prohibit employers from relying solely on AI when making termination or disciplinary decisions, and require companies to disclose when mass layoffs, relocations, or terminations are driven by an AI system.
“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said, adding that California intends to “put people at the center” as the technology reshapes the workplace.
Newsom also took aim at the Trump administration’s stance that the AI industry should be allowed to self-regulate, dismissing the idea in blunt terms and arguing that states need to act given the lack of federal oversight.
In a related move, Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to continue referring to the technology as “artificial intelligence,” rejecting a recent directive from the Trump administration instructing some federal employees to use the term “super intelligence” instead.
The governor, viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, has increasingly positioned California as a national leader on AI regulation, comparing the risks posed by unregulated AI systems to those historically associated with the airline industry.
The push for new protections appears to have been influenced in part by complaints from Meta employees, who alleged the company’s AI tools disproportionately flagged workers who had taken medical leave as layoff candidates. Separately, workplace research cited by HR Dive found that roughly one in four managers report using AI to help determine which employees to lay off on a frequent or ongoing basis.
Source: Reporting adapted from Engadget.