California signs new limits on workplace AI and surveillance
California’s measures limit workplace AI surveillance and decisions while adding rules for clinical tools, deepfakes, likeness misuse and gene-synthesis screening.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of AI-related measures. Under the workplace provisions, employers cannot use AI systems to read or predict workers’ emotions or collect neural data through workplace sensors. Companies also cannot rely solely on AI to discipline or fire employees, and workers must be notified when AI plays a role in certain layoffs, relocations or terminations.
The measures extend beyond employment. Doctors must retain their own professional judgment when using clinical AI tools; protections against AI-generated deepfakes and misuse of a person’s likeness are being strengthened; and gene-synthesis companies must verify customers and screen the genetic material they produce.
A separate part of the package keeps “artificial intelligence” as California’s official terminology. Each measure has its own scope and implementation conditions and should not be treated as one uniform rule.
