California ‘No Robo Bosses Act’ would bar AI from making personnel decisions

California state Sen. Jerry McNerney this month introduced the “No Robo Bosses Act,” which would bar California employers from solely using artificial intelligence tools or other automated decision-making systems to make hiring, promotion, discipline or termination decisions without human oversight.

McNerney, a Democrat who co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and authored the AI in Government Act, said the new bill, which would apply to both the public and private sector, is intended to balance technological innovation and guardrails.

“I want to make sure is that AI is beneficial and not harmful,” McNerney told StateScoop in a recent interview. “And having an AI management of a person’s life seems to me to be detrimental, and so I want to make sure there’s a human in the loop.”

According to a 2024 report by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, 40% of workers experience some form of automated task management, and there are more than 550 so-called “bossware” products available to employers to help manage their workplaces.

The legislation, which is set to head to the Judiciary Committee next month, would also prohibit the use of AI systems that use workers’ personal information in predictive models. Predictive models are often used in transportation, weather forecasting, health care and other industries, but McNerney argued that humans aren’t so formulaic.

“Someone may have made a mistake in earlier life and has done everything to reform and take a straight path. You don’t want that kind of thing to be held against a person and follow you your whole life,” McNerney said. “Humans have their own minds, their own free will. Systems can go into people’s lives and make predictions about what they’re going to do, and make decisions based on predictions rather than real behavior.”

McNerney said that in addition to attempting to eliminate biases, the bill also aims to use human oversight to circumvent AI hallucinations, when large language models fabricate false information.

If passed, any employer who violates the law would be fined $500 fine per violation and may also have to pay legal fees and other costs. The state labor commissioner would be responsible for enforcement, investigating violations, issuing fines and taking legal action against employers who break the law.

Cities and counties would still be allowed their own worker protection laws regarding AI systems, provided they offered the same level of protection included in the state legislation.

The “No Robo Bosses Act” precedes a draft report on AI frontier models published Tuesday by the the Joint California Policy Working Group detailing how California can create policies for advanced AI systems without slowing down innovation. The report does not delve into the technology’s impact on labor, environmental concerns related to data centers or potential misuse.