While we’re familiar with The Terminator from the world of science fiction, the idea of a robot terminating people’s employment isn’t fiction anymore with the new capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI). The use of AI to make important employment decisions in the workplace is growing and there have even been instances of AI agents serving as managers of human employees. With this technology becoming increasingly adopted, it’s critical that we set guardrails now that preserve the dignity of human labor and ensure responsible processes exist for decisions so fundamental to people’s lives.
 
Without appropriate safeguards and human oversight, the use of automated systems to make firing, disciplinary, and other key employment decisions poses significant risks, including the potential for hidden discrimination and labor law violations, hallucinations, mistaken decisions based on incorrect data, and encouraging dangerous working conditions. Surveys are showing that large numbers of employers are already using AI to make these life-changing decisions, often without sufficient transparency on the factors involved for either the manager or employee, and sometimes without any human input at all.
 
That is why I plan to introduce legislation that would prohibit employers from solely relying on AI systems to make important employment-related decisions, require review by a human decision-maker before implementing decisions based on AI system outputs, and provide affected workers with transparency and the right to dispute incorrect information used to influence these decisions.
 
Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to make sure that as this technology becomes increasingly common in so many aspects of our lives, it is designed to work for humans and make their lives better - and not the other way around. Thank you for your consideration.