The HRTech Wire

California bill would ban AI tools that read employees’ emotions

California's Assembly Bill 1883, passed by lawmakers and awaiting the governor's signature, would ban employers from using AI-powered workplace-surveillance tools to collect neural data or infer employees' emotional states, with civil penalties of up to $500 per violation. The measure mirrors the EU AI Act's restrictions on emotion-recognition systems in workplaces and signals an accelerating regulatory wave that HR-tech buyers and vendors of monitoring, productivity, and biometric tools must urgently track.