The California tech bills passed in session’s final hours

Sen. Jerry McNerney, a Democrat, targeted automated decision-making systems with the No Robo Bosses Act of 2026.

The bill would bar employers from using an AI system as the sole determination for firing or disciplining an employee.

In cases where an automated system was the primary evaluator, a human would have to review and corroborate the decision. Employees would have the right to know if AI was used to discipline or fire them, and they could request to review the data set that led to the decision.

California already has a law on the books requiring safety protocols for large, frontier AI models, with the goal of preventing catastrophic harm.

Lawmakers this year passed a pair of bills from Bauer-Kahan and McNerney that would establish the infrastructure for a voluntary third-party review system.

Bauer-Kahan’s bill would create a registry of AI auditors.

McNerney’s bill directs California’s Government Operations Agency to set up a process for qualifying and regulating so-called independent verification organizations. These IVOs, as they are known, would be responsible for assessing the risk posed by large AI models.

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