Comment by TechEquity Collaborative

AI-powered wealth consolidation, paired with low union density and reduced worker power overall, is resulting in historic inequality. In this context, productivity gains from AI are increasing profits for shareholders and executives at the expense of worsening working conditions or even loss of jobs for workers. [...] In addition, we can institute policies that hold employers accountable for replacing workers with AI. Nobel laureates Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson have proposed new tax structures that can incentivize employers to retain workers. California could pursue these and other policy proposals to ensure humans remain firmly in control in critical situations, update layoff protections for the modern workplace, and implement other mechanisms that disincentivize the use of AI that is there merely to displace workers.