AI and Middle Class Mobility at the California Department of Motor Vehicles

Grant description:

This study will examine the emerging role of artificial intelligence in ongoing “modernization” initiatives at the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the impacts these changes have had on the agency’s workforce. Public-sector employment has long provided a dependable pathway to the middle class for workers otherwise less likely to attain such job security, wages, and benefits based on their race, gender, geography, or educational attainment. The rapid ascendance of public-sector AI initiatives in California raises significant questions about the future of this longstanding opportunity for middle-class mobility. Through mixed methods analysis of public and private datasets, the team will assess the demographic and economic outcomes associated with specific AI technologies in use at the Department of Motor Vehicles. This will provide policymakers and labor advocates with a clearer sense of how to meaningfully intervene to bolster worker protections and sustain a diverse middle class amid widespread technological uncertainty.