This Labor Day, Consider AI's Impact on Hiring

Good morning!

It’s a holiday weekend in the United States. Labor Day commemorates the labor movement and the fight to secure and protect the rights of all workers. Unfortunately, workers are losing ground in the US under an administration that is actively undermining workers’ rights. Artificial intelligence is also playing a role, including in hiring.

In an essay for Tech Policy Press, NYU School of Law senior affiliated research scholar and former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) chair Charlotte A. Burrows says AI hiring tools can reject qualified people "for reasons no one—including the employer—can adequately explain." She says gutting disparate impact law makes it worse, because it “threatens one of the few legal incentives for ensuring that automated employment systems actually work as advertised. That’s because civil rights compliance requires that AI used in employment be job-related and serve a legitimate business purpose.”

We also considered the plight of data workers this week. Late last month, news stories announcing the shutdown of Amazon's Mechanical Turk were passed between alarmed data workers two days before they received direct notice from Amazon by email. Krystal Kauffmann calls for lawmakers to protect AI's hidden workforce.

Read on for more from Tech Policy Press this week!

States address AI chatbots and ‘companions’

Twelve states now have "companion bot" laws aimed at reducing risks, particularly for minors. Danny Tobey, Ashley Carr, and Michael Atleson of DLA Piper analyze the substantive provisions and identify four overarching principles for AI providers.

For the Tech Policy Press podcast, I spoke with Dr. Kira Allmann, chief policy analyst at Virginia's Joint Commission on Technology and Science, about her research on AI chatbots as the state weighs its legislative options.

Caution reigns on AI in schools as students return in the US

As K-12 students head back to school across the United States, Tech Policy Press fellow Chris Mills Rodrigo reports they're unlikely to find consistent, clear rules on AI use. Many districts have set guardrails but avoided system-wide rules, leaving choices to individual teachers.

That’s not the case in New York City and Los Angeles, which just last week separately moved to restrict AI in classrooms. In both cities, the parents and teachers who pushed for restrictions are celebrating. Mills Rodrigo reports on the grassroots movement resisting the rush to adopt AI in schools.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren on FISA, surveillance, the Fourth Amendment

For the podcast, Tech Policy Press fellow Jake Laperruque spoke with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) about FISA Section 702, surveillance, and the Fourth Amendment, including the fight over a warrant requirement for querying Americans' data.

The European Commission designates new ‘very large’ platforms

The European Commission designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine under the DSA on Aug. 31. AWO’s Mathias Vermeulen and Laureline Lemoine wrote about what the obligations require and whether a DMA gatekeeper designation could follow. “These obligations will only start applying in January 2027, but it’s worth asking what comes next,” they write.

Even as the Commission designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine, it also designated Roblox a Very Large Online Platform under the DSA. NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights policy advisor Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat considers what the obligations require and why implementation is the hard part.

Artificial intelligence in Germany

Germany's cabinet approved a bill in July that would allow AI use in visa, residence and asylum procedures. Researchers Natalie Welfens, Josefine Flesch and Bernard Quante unpack the rights and bias concerns it raises.

AI safety institutes test advanced AI systems to help governments understand their risks. Germany should learn from what has (and hasn’t) worked elsewherebefore it builds its own, says Martin Wählisch, an Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Birmingham and a member of its Centre for AI in Government.

The Meta settlement

Meta's $17.1 billion settlement's impact will depend on whether a child rights framework, not just US litigation, shapes what tech companies do next, writes technology and human rights expert Iain Levine. “It will be vital to ensure that child rights due diligence involves engagement with children and their parents and caregivers, especially those who are particularly vulnerable to harms, including those with disabilities, LGBTQ+ children, those belonging to racial and religious minorities and others, around the world,” he writes.

The Google ad tech remedies order

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Virginia issued an order on remedies in the Google ad-tech antitrust case. "I'm disappointed in the order, and you should be, too." Public Knowledge policy director Lisa Macpherson says the Google ad-tech remedies ruling ensures the illegal monopolist keeps its grip, and litigation alone won't fix it.

Anti-tech extremism

GWU Program on Extremism research fellow Jordyn Abrams says the answer to rising anti-tech extremism isn't more surveillance of activists — it's addressing the grievances driving people toward violence in the first place.

AI governance

The EU AI Act's new transparency rules took effect on Aug. 2, requiring disclosure of AI interactions and marking of AI-generated content. Taras Kovalchuk on whether they are enough to strengthen democratic resilience in Europe.

Regulators aren't treating AI as an exotic category outside privacy law, write Isabel Hahn and Aaron Alva, both fellows at Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. They're identifying where familiar principles get harder to operationalize as systems infer, remember, and act.

Disinformation and migration

A wave of disinformation on social media preceded this summer's mass crossing into Spain's Ceuta. Tech Policy Press fellows Petra Molnar and Liz Carolan on the information failure it revealed and what it means for how migrants access information at borders.

Protecting human rights data and investigations

How can human rights investigators protect their data amid rising authoritarianism? I spoke with Maheen Khan from the Invisible Institute andPatrick Ball from HRDAG about the new Technology Freedom Cooperative.

Don’t miss new developments in US tech policy

The August US policy roundup from Freedman Consulting and Tech Policy Press tracks what was a very busy month: a $17.1B Meta teen-safety settlement, a White House AI cyber framework kept secret, and OpenAI's 700-agent "swarm" hack of Hugging Face drawing calls for further investigation.

As you can tell from the newsletter above, our fellows have a huge impact on what we cover, bringing perspectives from across multiple disciples and geographies. Our call for 2027 fellows is open now through September 24!

I wish you the best for the week ahead-

Justin