Calif. State Senator Jerry McNerney, a Democrat, has introduced the “No Robo Bosses Act” that would require human oversight of artificial intelligence systems in the workplace with the goal of preventing abuse.
If signed into law, the No Robo Bosses Act would be the first law of its kind in the country.
The legislation, SB 7, would bar California employers from relying primarily on AI systems – known as automated decision-making systems (ADS) – to make hiring, promotion, discipline, or termination decisions without human oversight. McNerney’s office explained that the legislation would also prohibit the use of ADS systems that use personal information of workers to “predict” what they’ll do in the future.
“Businesses are increasingly using AI to boost efficiency and productivity in the workplace. But there are currently no safeguards to prevent machines from unjustly or illegally impacting workers’ livelihoods and working conditions,” Sen. McNerney said. “SB 7 does not prohibit ADS in the workplace, rather it establishes guardrails to ensure that California businesses are not operated by robo bosses — by putting a human in the loop. AI must remain a tool controlled by humans, not the other way around.”
The legislation would establish safeguards around AI in the workplace by:
- Requiring human oversight and independent verification for promotion, demotion, firing, and disciplinary decisions.
- Barring ADS systems from obtaining or inferring a worker’s immigration status; veteran status; ancestral history; religious or political beliefs; health or reproductive status, history, or plan; emotional or psychological state; neural data; sexual or gender orientation’ disability; criminal record; credit history’ or any other statuses protected state law.
- Prohibiting the use of ADS for predictive behavior analysis based on personal information collected about workers that results in adverse action against a worker for what the AI predicts the worker will do.
- Creating a process for workers to appeal decisions made by ADS.
The bill is backed by the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.
“No worker should have to answer to a robot boss when they are fearful of getting injured on the job, or when they have to go to the bathroom or leave work for an emergency,” said Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, representing over 1,300 unions with 2.3 million union members. “When it comes to decisions that most impact our jobs, our safety and our families, we need human oversight.”
