California began to use open data to track whether artificial intelligence is affecting the job market. On June 25, Governor Gavin Newson announced that an "AI Unemployment Tracking Platform" for the public was on the line to see if AI was associated with job losses in the state.
Platform updates unemployment claim data on a monthly basis
The platform was developed by the Department of Employment Development of California in collaboration with UCLA site researchers and updated on a monthly basis. The focus is on occupations that are considered to be more vulnerable to AI and on which jobs may already be under stress in the context of unemployment benefit claims.
The State Government has indicated that the purpose of this tool is not just to provide statistical changes, but also to determine which groups require support such as retraining, job search assistance, health guidance, etc. According to Newson, California will not be alone in observing this new technology, but will act ahead of schedule.
No state-wide layoffs at this stage.
As far as the results are concerned, California has not seen any signs of a rise in unemployment across the state directly related to AI. According to the researchers, for the time being, widespread lay-offs of external concern have not been reflected in state-level data.
However, following the introduction of ChatGPT 3.5 in 2022, there has been an increase in unemployment claims in some of the more exposed occupations of AI, particularly among university-educated workers, and in the San Francisco Bay region. This means that the impact may first occur in some white-collar jobs, rather than rapidly spreading to the overall job market.
U.S. politics are following up on AI's alternative employment.
California's actions also reflect rising concerns about the impact of US policy on AI employment. Federal Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has recently warned that AI may cause job losses; Federal Senator Josh Holley of Missouri introduced a cross-party bill last year requiring companies to disclose AI-related layoffs; and New York state parliamentarians introduced an "AI dividend" programme linked to AI alternative employment in April this year.
Businesses and research institutions have also continued to issue warnings in the recent past. In January this year, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, stated that AI could cut by as much as half of the junior white collar positions in the next five years. A study by the United States Federal Reserve in April found that since ChatGPT was launched, the rate of increase in programmers in the United States has declined by about 50 per cent, which is considered to be one of the stronger evidence that generating AI has begun to influence high-risk job recruitment.