California Would Make Firms Name the AI That Replaced the Workers

On 31 August, the last day of California's two-year session, the state Senate concurred in Assembly amendments to SB 951 by 29 votes to 10. The bill, from Senator Sabrina Cervantes Reyes, amends the Cal/WARN Act so that mass layoffs or hiring freezes caused by artificial intelligence or automation trigger notice — and so that the notice has to say what did the replacing.

What the notice must contain

Sixty days' written warning, identifying which job functions are being automated, the type of AI system involved and its developer or vendor. There is a separate duty to tell the Employment Development Department when hiring in an occupation stops permanently because of automation. The threshold is a covered establishment with 75 or more workers over the preceding twelve months, and employees must have worked at least six months. Violations carry $500 per day, enforced by the Labor Commissioner. The reporting requirements sunset on 1 January 2029.

Three things being reported wrong

First, the number. Earlier drafts and several advocacy summaries carry 90 days; the enrolled text says 60. Take the figure from the final text, not the campaign material. Second, the verb. This is a disclosure obligation — California has not banned AI-driven layoffs, and nothing in the bill prevents one. Third, and most important, the tense: the bill is not law. It has passed both chambers and is on the governor's desk, and Gavin Newsom has vetoed AI bills before.

Why the vendor clause is the substantive part

Notice requirements for mass layoffs already exist. What is new is compelling an employer to name the system and the company that supplied it. If signed, that turns a claim currently made only in earnings calls and vendor marketing into a filed, checkable record — the first mechanism in the United States capable of producing statistics on AI displacement that do not depend on employer surveys.

Where it sits in the session

SB 951 is one of roughly two dozen AI bills that reached the governor when the legislature adjourned sine die. He has until 30 September to sign or veto.