California Senator Jerry McNerney introduced the “No Robo Boss Act” this month. This allows California employers to use artificial intelligence tools or other automated decision-making systems solely to make employment, promotion, discipline, or fire decisions without human supervision.
McNerney, a Democrat who co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and authored AI for government law, said the new bill, which applies to both the public and private sectors, aims to balance innovation and guardrails.
“I want to make sure that AI is beneficial and not harmful,” McNerney told Statescoop in a recent interview. “And having AI management in a person’s life seems harmful to me, so I want to make sure there are humans in the loop.”
According to a 2024 report from the Duke of Washington Heisei Centre, 40% of workers experience some form of automated task management, with over 550 so-called “bossware” products available to employers to help manage their workplaces.
The law, set to head to the Judiciary Committee next month, also prohibits the use of AI systems that use workers’ personal information in predictive models. Predictive models are often used in transportation, weather forecasting, healthcare and other industries, but McNerney argued that humans are less conventional.
“Someone could have made mistakes in his previous life, reformed, and done everything to go straight. You don’t want to embrace that kind of thing with people and follow you throughout your life,” McNeeney said. “Humans have their own minds, their own free will. The system allows them to enter people’s lives and predict what they are trying to do, and make decisions based on predictions rather than actual actions.”
In addition to trying to eliminate bias, McNerney said the bill aims to avoid AI hallucinations in order to use human surveillance when large-scale language models produce misinformation.
If passed, employers who violate the law may be fined $500 for each violation and may be required to pay legal and other expenses. The state’s Labor Secretary will enforce, investigate violations, issue fines and take legal action against employers that break the law.
Cities and counties still are allowed to have their own worker protection laws on AI systems, provided they provide the same level of protection that is included in state law.
The “No Robo Boss Act” precedes a draft report of the AI Frontier Model published by the Joint Policy Working Group, which details how California can create policies for advanced AI systems without slowing down innovation. The report does not delve into the impact of technology on labor, environmental concerns related to data centers, or potential misuse.
