Should AI be regulated in the workplace? California lawmakers took that question on this legislative session

While the self-checkout line at the local grocery or retail store is just a routine process for many, it’s become a focal point for California’s state lawmakers.

A bill moving through the Legislature this year — Senate Bill 1446 by Democratic Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas — would require higher staffing levels for self-checkout stations with the goal of protecting jobs and reducing retail theft.

“It's been largely used to get rid of workers in the front of the store,” said Zach Gayner, a researcher for UFCW Local 5, a union which represents roughly 30,000 food and commercial workers in Northern California. The union supports the bill.

Gayner says self checkout has drastically changed the job for cashiers.

“You have to solve a problem for a machine that took the good aspect of your job away,” Gayner said. “You're coming to a customer that's already irate, they're already mad, rather than talking to somebody about their day.”

Self-checkout is just one example of how the push and pull between labor and AI is playing out in California’s state Capitol. A handful of bills introduced this legislative session aim to protect jobs and regulate the use of AI in workplaces.

• Assembly Bill 2286 by Democratic Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry of Winters would require driverless retail trucks to remain staffed by human safety operators. 

• Senate Bill 1220 by Democratic Senator Monique Limon of Santa Barbara would block the use of AI in state agency call centers to eliminate jobs. 

• Assembly Bill 2602 by Democratic Assembly member Ash Kalra of San Jose would provide protections for workers in the creative space, including Hollywood voice actors and other performers, from making digital replicas of their work without permission.

Earlier this summer, legislators held an entire informational hearing on how AI is impacting California’s workforce. Asm. Liz Ortega is Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee and said she doesn’t want the Legislature to wait to regulate AI as it did with social media.

“I … continue to hear horror stories about how this technology is impacting our youth and so I don't want to continue in that path where we don't put safeguards in regulations in place when it comes to artificial intelligence and the workplace,” Ortega said.

Labor is a powerful force in California state politics. With a Democratic supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate, organized labor has found many allies in elected officials. The state has just under three million unionized workers, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions and former state Assembly member, said workers should be at the center of conversations about new technologies in the workplace.

“We should just not accept that computers are going to come replace humans,” Gonzalez said. “We want to say, ‘we want to be part of the solution. We want to be at the table,’ and that means slowing it down a little to ensure that you have those guardrails that are necessary to protect workers and to protect society.”

When it comes to AI, most lawmakers and stakeholders agree guardrails are needed, but they disagree on what those protections should be. California’s status as a global tech hub means lawmakers have to walk the line between supporting technology in workplaces and protecting jobs.

Ben Golombek, an advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce, said many of California’s businesses agree that some regulation around AI is necessary.

“But at the same time, again, ensuring that the next sort of billion dollar idea — that might be being started right now in somebody's garage somewhere in the Bay Area or Silicon Beach down in LA — there's not the regulation in place that's going to drive those folks out of California to do their startups in New York or Austin,” Golombek said.

During this year’s informational hearing on AI in the workplace, Asm. Ortega maintained that she isn’t opposed to technology or the use of AI. Gonzalez also said labor advocates aren’t trying to hamper innovation.

“Technology can be good,” Gonzalez said. “It can be a win-win, but we need to have human oversight.”

While the fate of these bills will be decided this week, the fight for a win-win between labor and big tech will extend far beyond this legislative session.