California is considering how its worker-notification system should address job losses caused by artificial intelligence and automation. Governor Gavin Newsom ordered agencies to study technological displacement, while pending SB 951 would impose AI-specific requirements around qualifying mass layoffs, including advance notice and information about the technology involved. Existing Cal-WARN law already governs many large layoffs, but the proposal raises a distinct issue: whether employers adopting labor-saving technology should have additional disclosure and worker-transition duties specifically because automation caused the reduction. Companies should be able to modernize, but workers should not learn overnight that a technology investment eliminated jobs management had planned to remove for months.
When AI causes mass layoffs, what notice should California workers get?