Although California’s Senate Bill 7 did not become law and California’s Assembly Bill 1018 is currently inactive, both bills preview the types of disclosure, documentation, and oversight obligations that California lawmakers have been considering in connection with employers’ use of automated tools in employment decisions.
Many employers are already using automated tools to screen applicants, evaluate performance, and support hiring and disciplinary decisions. In some cases, however, the people using those tools do not understand them well. For example, employers may not know what inputs the tool relies on, how it generates outputs, or how the tool applies those outputs in “decision-making.” That gap creates compliance risk under existing law because the employer may not be able to explain or substantiate how a particular employment decision was made.
Since October 1, 2025, California employers have been operating under the state’s Civil Rights Council’s automated-decision-system regulations, which clarify how existing anti-discrimination law applies when employers use artificial intelligence, algorithms, and other automated tools in employment decisions. Those regulations reinforce that employers remain responsible for the use and outcomes of these tools.
Against that backdrop, the California Legislature’s two recent AI-related proposals are best understood as addressing a related issue: not only whether an automated system produces a discriminatory result but whether...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently provided important information about how it plans to handle the surge in data-driven False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam lawsuits. On April 30, 2026, DOJ announc...