A bill making its way through the California State Legislature would give employees and independent contractors new protections from “robobosses” — artificial intelligence and other automated systems used in hiring, scheduling, performance evaluation and firing decisions.

Senate Bill 7 — authored by state Sen. Jerry McNerney, a Democrat who represents Pleasanton — would require employers to notify current and potential workers of their use of such systems and bar employers from “primarily” relying on those systems in disciplinary and firing decisions.

The legislation would also allow employees and independent contractors who have been fired, disciplined or deactivated to appeal such decisions to human reviewers uninvolved in them if their employers made them with the help of automated

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