Cal State faculty push to prevent AI tools from replacing them as schools experiment

by Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters June 21, 2026June 19, 2026

A student walks up the stairs at the Innovation and Instruction building at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson on Feb. 19, 2026. (Zin Chiang for CalMatters)

THE NATION’S LARGEST public four-year university may soon be barred from replacing faculty with generative AI as a bill backed by a union of professors comes nearer to reaching the governor’s desk.

Few examples exist of the California State University’s attempting to replace faculty labor with generative AI tools, but the faculty union wants to prevent such efforts from ever getting off the ground. The bill so far has garnered no opposition from lawmakers and may clear the Legislature as soon as Monday.