Employee AI Training Consent Act

Section 1–Title: This bill shall be known as the Employee AI Training Consent Act.

Section 2–Consent for AI Training Use: An employer engaged in commerce or in an industry affecting commerce may not sell, license, transfer, disclose, or otherwise provide to another person any material created by, depicting, recording, or individually attributable to a current or former employee, applicant, independent contractor, or other individual performing compensated services for the employer for the purpose of training, fine tuning, testing, validating, or otherwise developing an artificial intelligence system unless the affected individual has provided written consent.

For purposes of this section, created material includes personal writings or communications; voice recordings or voice data; photographs, video, likeness, or other identifiable audiovisual material; individually attributable research, analysis, commentary, or written material; and other substantially similar material capable of being used in the development of an artificial intelligence system.

Consent required under this section should be obtained separately from any general employment agreement, employee handbook, terms of service, or general assignment of intellectual property rights; clearly identify the categories of material covered by the authorization; describe the intended artificial intelligence use in clear and conspicuous language; identify, to the extent reasonably known, the person or category of persons to whom the material may be provided; state whether the material may be sublicensed or transferred to additional persons; and be knowingly and voluntarily executed by the affected individual.

Acceptance or continuation of employment, execution of a general work product or intellectual property agreement, or consent to the ordinary business use of material shall not constitute consent for purposes of this section.

Section 3–Retaliation Protection: An employer may not discharge, discipline, discriminate against, refuse to hire, reduce the compensation of, or otherwise retaliate against an individual because the individual refuses to provide consent under section 2; revokes consent where permitted under the terms of the authorization; or files or participates in a complaint or proceeding concerning a violation of this Act.

Section 4–Exceptions: The requirements in this legislation shall not apply to material lawfully made publicly available by the individual and independently obtained by an artificial intelligence developer without transfer by the employer; the ordinary internal use of employee work product by an employer that does not involve providing such material to another person for artificial intelligence training or development; or disclosures required by Federal or State law, regulation, subpoena, or court order.

Section 5–Enforcement: A violation of this Act shall be treated as an unfair or deceptive act or practice under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

The Federal Trade Commission may impose a civil penalty of not more than $25,000 per affected individual for each knowing violation.

An individual whose material is used in violation of this Act may bring a civil action in an appropriate court and may recover actual damages, statutory damages of not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000 per violation, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, and appropriate injunctive or equitable relief.

Section 6–Relation to Other Laws: This act shall not limit any greater protection provided under other Federal or State laws or prohibit a voluntary agreement providing compensation for authorized artificial intelligence training use.

Section 7–Enactment Date: This Act shall take effect 180 days after the date of enactment.