California’s rush into artificial intelligence is sharpening a debate with major implications for workers across the state, including Southern California’s public employees, health care workers, educators and journalists.
At the CalMatters Ideas Festival in Sacramento on Thursday, a representative from one of the country’s leading AI companies argued that the technology can help government workers serve the public more efficiently. A top labor leader countered that California has not done enough to prevent AI from displacing workers or weakening job protections.
Cesar Fernandez, who leads U.S. state and local government relations for Anthropic, said the company recognizes concerns that AI could threaten democratic values if used irresponsibly. But he said the technology also has practical uses, particularly in government agencies where employees are stretched thin.
Fernandez pointed to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, which uses Anthropic’s AI tool, Claude, to help answer tax-related questions. The agency receives more than 800,000 calls a year, he said, and the tool has helped reduce response times, shorten calls and improve the quality of information provided to residents.
“It’s enabling the same employees to do more,” Fernandez said.
Anthropic, according to the Financial Times, is approaching a valuation of $1 trillion, underscoring the rapid growth of the AI industry and the scale of its influence.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently moved to prepare the state for potential workforce disruption. His executive order directs state agencies to review California’s policies for workers who lose jobs, develop a dashboard tracking AI-related job losses and study how labor unions are addressing artificial intelligence in collective bargaining agreements.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, said the executive order falls short because it does not include stronger rules to limit how AI can affect workers. She noted that Newsom has vetoed several labor-backed AI bills and said treating mass job loss as unavoidable is itself a political choice.
Gonzalez said fields such as health care, behavioral health, journalism and teaching include work that society may decide should not be handed over to computers.
“There are some things we as a society can say we would never want those jobs replaced and done by a computer,” she said.
The debate is likely to continue in Sacramento as lawmakers, labor groups and technology companies wrestle with how to balance innovation with job security. For workers in regions such as the Inland Empire, where public agencies, logistics, education and health care are major employers, the outcome could help shape how AI enters the workplace — and who benefits from it.
Original source: CalMatters
