China’s courts rule workers can’t be fired just because AI replaced them — and the US has no such protections In Hangzhou city, a city off the east coast of China and a major AI hub, a worker only identified by his surname Zhou, was laid off at a tech firm.
Zhou’s job, verifying the accuracy of large language models, was taken over by AI
His contract was terminated after he declined a lower-level reassignment with a 40% pay cut, 25,000 yuan ($3,640 USD) monthly to 15,000 yuan ($2,224 USD), according to Xinhua, a state news agency. An arbitration panel ruled the dismissal was illegal and awarded Zhou with additional severance. The tech firm filed a lawsuit with a Hangzhou district court in August 2025, which they lost.
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