California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to attempt to deal with the impacts of artificial intelligence on workers and businesses.
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The order directs the state to explore policies that include severance standards, employment insurance and transition support for displaced workers, worker ownership models, universal basic capital concepts, expanded workforce training and better tracking of hiring and payroll trends to help respond to potential layoffs and economic disruption.
The order directs the certain state agencies to:
- Evaluate and support opportunities to expand and enhance worker ownership models to support capital growth and build wealth from productivity gains among workers, including employee-owned company structures.
- Support small businesses through educational and incentive opportunities on best practices and applications for using emerging technology.
- Identify ways the collective bargaining process has delivered positive outcomes for workers.
- Add more on-the-job training and AI preparation in higher education.
- Review policies that provide workers with a safety net, including severance and other forms of compensation such as stock or other forms of equity.
- Increase awareness and enrollment of employment insurance programs.
- Create an AI playbook to modernize job training programs, including expanding strategies for connecting dislocated workers with training and technical assistance.
The order mandates that within within 90 days the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and other state agencies in consultation with academic and private industry partners must provide a review of emerging research identifying the potential workforce impacts of technological shifts, including AI’s impact on California’s labor market and potential disproportionate impacts on demographic groups.