Gavin Newsom signing housing bills with California lawmakers in October 2019 (file photo). Image: Office of the Governor of California / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, cropped
California will keep calling it AI. Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Wednesday telling state agencies to go on saying “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI”, whatever the federal government calls it, a day after President Trump ordered Washington to say “Super Intelligence” instead. He signed it alongside 13 new AI laws, including a ban on employers firing or disciplining workers on the say-so of an algorithm alone.
“A person of normal intelligence” #
The order, numbered N-10-26, is a direct answer to Trump’s “Super Intelligence” order. Its preamble does not hold back:
While language and choice of terminology can have significance, purporting to change something’s name cannot distract a person of normal intelligence from recognizing the impotent and craven failure to take action to address well-documented emerging security and safety risks posed by that thing. Executive Order N-10-26, signed by Gavin Newsom
It tells every agency under Newsom’s authority to use “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” “notwithstanding any rebranded or different terminology used by the federal government”. The governor’s office headlined the announcement “Signs executive order declaring the obvious”. “Super intelligence is clearly not coming from the White House,” Newsom said, adding: “that’s why California continues to lead.”
No firing by algorithm #
The biggest of the new laws is SB 947, the No Robo Bosses Act, by Senator Jerry McNerney. From July 1, 2027, employers in California may not rely solely on an automated decision system, which the law defines to include AI, when they discipline or fire someone.
If a company relies primarily on an AI system’s output, a human has to check the decision against other evidence, such as manager evaluations, personnel files, the worker’s own output or peer reviews. If the human can’t back it up, or finds the AI’s output inaccurate or misleading, the company can’t use it. The worker must get a plain-language notice saying AI was used and that a human reviewed it, plus a named person to contact and the right to see a description of their own data the system used. Employers also can’t use these systems to work out a worker’s protected status, such as race or religion, or to predict and punish people for using their legal rights. Fines are $500 per violation, enforced by the state labour commissioner or public prosecutors. There is no right for workers to sue on their own.
Newsom vetoed an earlier version of the bill last October. This one is narrower: it drops the rules on predicting worker behaviour and replaces a right to 12 months of data with a description of the data used.
Layoff notices must name the AI #
A second law, SB 951, updates California’s mass-layoff notice rules. When a layoff, relocation or closure is caused “in whole or in substantial part” by AI or other automation replacing jobs, the employer’s notice must say so, including which job functions are being automated. The state employment department will publish a quarterly summary of these AI job losses and report to lawmakers by January 2028 on how AI is changing hiring.
The other bills ban workplace surveillance tools in bathrooms, stop lawyers handing core legal work such as drafting briefs entirely to AI, let doctors use their own judgment when clinical AI tools are involved, tighten the state’s AI watermarking law and require gene synthesis companies to check who their customers are.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, said:
By signing these four first-in-the-nation bills, Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human oversight over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first.
Lorena Gonzalez, California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO
Why it matters #
California is where most big AI companies are based, so its rules reach far beyond the state, and this is the first US law to stop AI alone from deciding who gets fired. It also widens the split with Washington, where the White House is relying on a voluntary pact with AI companies and Senator Ted Cruz has blocked binding federal safety rules.
Sources: Office of the Governor of California, Executive Order N-10-26, SB 947 text, SB 951 text (September 30, 2026)