California is preparing for an AI shakeup it can't yet measure

Ah, California. Land of tech utopias and regulatory hand-wringing. Governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order directing state agencies to 'study' AI-driven workforce disruption through data collection, employment trend monitoring, and 'worker safeguards.' Because nothing says 'we're on top of this' like commissioning a multi-year study while the ground shifts beneath your feet. The order is billed as a 'first-in-the-nation effort' — as if being first to admit you're unprepared is a badge of honour rather than a white flag.

The gap between rhetoric and reality is breathtaking. Newsom's order talks about 'worker safeguards' — but safeguards against what, exactly? The AI that's already being deployed in call centres, legal document review, and even some white-collar roles? Or the AI that hasn't yet arrived but will make the current wave look like a gentle ripple? The executive order seems to assume that if you can measure the disruption, you can control it. But by the time the data is collected, tabulated, and analysed — perhaps in 2028 or 2030 — those jobs will have already vanished, replaced by something we didn't think to measure.

And let's not forget the delicious irony: California, home to the very companies building this technology — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Apple — now has to study the consequences of their own products. It's like throwing a party and then commissioning a study on how loud the music is after the neighbours have already called the police. The order may be 'first-in-the-nation,' but it's also a textbook example of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted — or in this case, while the horse is still galloping away, with Newsom's team taking detailed notes from the stands. You can almost hear the robots laughing as the study gets underway.