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.
Press Release

CA Senate Approves McNerney’s ‘No Robo Bosses Act’ to Ensure Human Oversight of AI in Workplace

The California state Senate on Monday evening approved Senator Jerry McNerney’s SB 7, the “No Robo Bosses Act” — groundbreaking legislation that would require human oversight of artificial intelligence systems in the workplace to help prevent abuses.

SB 7 would bar California employers from relying primarily on AI systems, known as automated decision-making systems (ADS), to make promotion, discipline, or termination decisions without human oversight. 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. 

“AI can boost productivity in the workplace, yet there are no safeguards in place to prevent machine algorithms from unjustly or illegally impacting workers’ livelihoods,” said Sen. McNerney, D-Pleasanton. “The Senate’s passage of SB 7 today sends a strong message: The use of AI in the workplace needs human oversight to ensure that California businesses are not operated by robo bosses. AI must remain a tool controlled by humans, not the other way around.”

SB 7 is sponsored by the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. If signed into law, the No Robo Bosses Act would be the first such law in the nation.

“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.”

SB 7 won approval in the Senate on a vote of 26-10, and now goes to the Assembly for consideration. 

SB 7 establishes necessary safeguards for 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 on 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 to a human for decisions made by ADS.

SB 7 is co-authored by Assemblymembers Sade Elhawary, D-South Los Angeles, and Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles.

In Congress, McNerney co-founded and co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and authored the AI in Government Act.

For more information on SB 7, click here.

 

Sen. Jerry McNerney is chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee and his 5th Senate District includes all of San Joaquin County and Alameda County’s Tri-Valley.