{"id":13491,"date":"2026-05-02T18:07:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/chinese-court-rules-that-a-worker-cannot-be-replaced-by-ai-futurism\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:07:55","slug":"chinese-court-rules-that-a-worker-cannot-be-replaced-by-ai-futurism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/chinese-court-rules-that-a-worker-cannot-be-replaced-by-ai-futurism\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Court Rules That a Worker Cannot Be Replaced by AI – Futurism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPublished\t\t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t\tthe state-run <\/a>Xinhua News Agency<\/a><\/em>, a Chinese court ruled that companies can’t use AI as an excuse to fire workers. The case involved a quality assurance supervisor, identified only by his surname Zhou, who was hired in 2022 to oversee a tech company’s AI output. When his bosses tried to replace him with a large language model (LLM) in 2025, they offered him a demotion with a 40 percent pay cut.
Unsurprisingly, Zhou refused \u2014 so the company fired him, offering a severance package worth around $45,000. Unhappy with the rather paltry payout, Zhou contested the severance offer through a government arbitration panel.
After that panel ruled in favor of Zhou on grounds that the dismissal was illegal, the company filed a lawsuit with a lower court, presumably the district-level Primary People’s Court<\/a>. After losing that suit, the company then appealed to the municipal-level Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision on the grounds that bringing on AI isn’t an excuse to start shredding job contracts.
“The termination grounds cited by the company did not fall under negative circumstances such as business downsizing or operational difficulties, nor did they meet the legal condition that made it ‘impossible to continue the employment contract,’” the court said in a statement translated by NPR<\/em><\/a>.
“Technological progress may be irreversible, but it cannot exist outside a legal framework,” Wang Xuyang, a lawyer from Zhejiang Xingjing law firm told Xinhua<\/em>.
It’s important to note that China follows a civil law system, unlike countries like the UK and US, which have common law systems. That being the case, there is no stare decisis<\/em> in China, the legal principle that requires courts in the US to follow precedent<\/a> set by other courts.
Still, the move is a major win for Zhou, and is seen as a soft sign that the Chinese judiciary, and therefore national lawmakers could be gearing up to protect workers from the threat of AI automation and austerity \u2014 while laborers remain largely on their own<\/a> in much of the western world.
More on China: <\/strong>Mark Zuckerberg Just Got Shot Down by China, Again<\/a><\/em>
I\u2019m a tech and labor correspondent for Futurism, where my beat includes the role of emerging technologies in governance, surveillance, and labor.<\/span>
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Victor Tangermann<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Victor Tangermann<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Victor Tangermann<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Maggie Harrison Dupr\u00e9<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Victor Tangermann<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Maggie Harrison Dupr\u00e9<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Joe Wilkins<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Frank Landymore<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
\t\t\t\t By<\/span> Victor Tangermann<\/a><\/span><\/span> \t\t\t
Sign up to see the future, today
Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech
Disclaimer(s)
Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. <\/span>Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.<\/span>
\u00a9 2026<\/span>\u00a0Recurrent<\/span><\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/span>
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Wilkins Published May 2, 2026 2:01 PM EDT Sign up to see the future, todayCan’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and techWhile workers in the western world agonize over what seems to be an impending job apocalypse, their Chinese counterparts are winning in pitched legal battles against AI automation.Last week, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}