California AI Working Group

Since 2024, leaders from the labor movement, privacy advocates, civil rights organizations, economic justice groups, and researchers have come together to ensure that the people most impacted by this tech have a voice in its design, development, and deployment.

The California AI Working Group exists to:

Provide education and raise awareness of the intersection of AI and issues important to Californians, including affordability, workers’ rights, healthcare quality, immigrant safety, privacy, and more.

Advocate for solutions that center people, hold companies accountable for harm, and ensure common-sense guardrails on the data that powers AI and the tools that enter our lives.

Provide an important, often overlooked, voice in the discussion of technology policy—the people who are making it, using it, and impacted by it every day.

Artificial Intelligence: What’s at stake

Right now, we’re at a critical juncture. If we want to build toward a future where people are safer, healthier, and more prosperous, we need to ensure that technology builds bridges—not barriers—to good jobs, affordable homes, quality healthcare, and dignity for all Californians. The choices we make today will determine whether AI empowers us or deepens the divides we already see.

Californians want urgent action

TechEquity’s 2026 AI Compass echoes several national polls, including those from the Pew Research Center, Quinnipiac University, and the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute, that show people care about AI and want elected officials to put meaningful regulations in place.

How do Californians feel about AI? 60%of Californians are concerned that the benefits of AI will accrue only to the wealthiest households and corporations, not working people and the middle class. 70%of Californians want the government to establish safeguards around AI systems that prevent the most common harms. They do not trust industry to develop or abide by voluntary standards to reduce risk. 58%of Californians are concerned AI will make essentials like housing and electricity more expensive.