“Government has a role to play in trying to ease the transition to the AI economy. It seems to be coming fast and furious,” said Stanford Law professor Nate Persily, a legal scholar and AI policy expert. “Politicians around the country are paying attention to the implications of AI for the economy and, in particular, employment. And so it’s not surprising that California, which is home to the nation’s AI industry, is trying to be a leader in addressing the labor impacts of AI.”

“I think the jury is still out as to whether AI is on net going to cost jobs or create more jobs,” Persily said. “But we know that it’s going to disrupt the economy and that it’s going to change employment in the future. There are jobs that exist today that will be replaced by AI, and there are jobs that we can’t even think of that will be created by AI.”

Persily, who coauthored the book Artificial Intelligence, Politics and Political Science, called the order admirable and important but cautioned that regulating the technology poses significant challenges.

“Every time a government drafts a law, it seems to be outdated two months later. And so this is an incredibly difficult area to regulate,” he said.

Persily said he remains optimistic about AI’s longterm impact on employment.

“I am optimistic that AI is going to create a whole new category of jobs that we haven’t even thought of yet. And it really just depends on the diffusion of AI into the economy,” he said. “There are so many needs that are unmet that I think AI will be able to address.”

“I think there are going to be small businesses that thrive because of the AI revolution,” Persily said. “And the question is, how can you use AI to increase productivity of existing workers and provide new jobs for those who are going to be displaced by the disruption? Government is necessarily going to have a role to play, if for no other reason than that they are in the best position to educate the future workers for that new economy.”