JobsCalifornia signs 13 AI bills, including one barring AI from firing workers on its own

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 13 AI bills on September 30. The best known, the No Robo Bosses Act, bars employers from relying solely on an automated system to fire or discipline workers. When AI is the main basis, a human must corroborate it with other information such as manager or peer evaluations. California was reported to be the first state to put such a limit into law, and it takes effect July 1, 2027.

The other bills cover AI-driven layoffs, workplace surveillance, deepfakes, medical AI and lawyers' use of AI. They limit surveillance systems that try to read workers' emotional states or neural data and ban surveillance tools in bathrooms. Newsom also signed an executive order directing state agencies to consistently call the technology “artificial intelligence.”