Policy
Your Rights Before an AI Interview, by State and Date
Federal law gives you no general right to know an AI system reviewed your interview. A few states already grant one, each on its own date. Illinois has required notice and consent before AI analyzes a video interview since January 1, 2020. New York City requires ten business days' notice before an automated tool screens a resident, enforced since July 5, 2023. Maryland requires a signed waiver before a facial recognition service builds a facial template during an interview. Most of the country has none of this yet.
Where Olive fits
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Rank your shortlistWhat Notice You're Owed, and Where
No US statute requires every employer to tell every applicant that AI touched their interview. What exists instead is a short, dated list of jurisdictions that each cover one piece of the process, and the coverage usually depends on where the job sits or where you live, not on where the company is headquartered.
| Jurisdiction | Statute | What it gives you | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | AI Video Interview Act, 820 ILCS 42 | Notice, an explanation of what the AI evaluates, and consent before AI analyzes a recorded video interview for an Illinois position; refuse and the employer may not evaluate that video with AI 1 | Jan 1, 2020 |
| Illinois | Human Rights Act, as amended by HB 3773 | A civil rights violation if AI has the effect of discriminating against you, including using a zip code as a stand-in for a protected class, plus a notice duty whose timing and form the statute leaves to Illinois regulators' rules 2 | Jan 1, 2026 |
| New York City | Local Law 144 | Ten business days' notice before an automated tool screens a candidate who resides in the city, plus a bias audit the employer has to post 3 | Jan 1, 2023; enforced Jul 5, 2023 |
| Maryland | Lab. & Empl. § 3-717 | A signed waiver before a facial recognition service builds a facial template during your interview 4 | Oct 1, 2020 |
| Colorado | none currently | The widely repeated 'Colorado AI Act' never took effect: it was pushed back and then repealed and replaced before its start date arrived 5 | none until Jan 1, 2027 |
Read that last row carefully, because it is the one most other advice gets wrong. Colorado Senate Bill 24-205 is quoted constantly as a live employer duty, and a large body of commentary still says so. It is not. Its start was pushed from February 1 to June 30, 2026, and Governor Polis signed a full replacement that May, so nothing in Colorado binds an employer today. What arrives on January 1, 2027 is narrower than the original bill: a plain-language description of an automated tool's role within 30 days of an adverse outcome, and a right to ask for meaningful human review 5.
Ask This Before You Sit Down
Use the notice right instead of guessing. If you live in New York City and are invited to an automated screening step, the law requires your employer to give you at least ten business days' notice, and that notice must let you request an alternative process or accommodation 6. A short message works: 'I understand an automated tool may be used to screen my application. Can you confirm what it evaluates and whether an alternative process is available?'
That asks about the alternative process, which needs no reason attached to it. An accommodation is a separate ask, and it has to say the barrier is there because of a disability. Sending either is not a red flag; the statute exists precisely so a candidate can ask. For an Illinois-based role with a recorded video round, the question is simpler, because the statute makes your answer binding: consent to AI analysis of that video is yours to give or withhold, and declining does not let the employer use AI on it anyway 1. The same Illinois law lets you ask that a video already recorded be deleted within 30 days, and requires anyone who received a copy to delete their backups too 1. Ask what happens to your application if you decline, since the law grants the refusal but attaches no separate penalty to an employer who lets it affect your standing.
A rejection afterward raises a different question than the interview did, and it is worth reading how an employer is told to answer it when a candidate asks why an automated tool moved them out. Outside Colorado's narrow 2027 right, most US employers owe no candidate-specific reason for a rejection at all, automated or not.
Where the EU Rules Reach You
Where you sit matters again if the employer is European, or if you are applying to one from anywhere. The EU AI Act names recruitment and candidate screening as high-risk uses, but the rules that actually bind those systems do not start until December 2, 2027, after the EU delayed the original 2026 date to give regulators more time 7. Anything written before mid-2026 naming August 2026 as the start date is quoting a superseded schedule.
Separately, GDPR has applied since 2018 and already gives an EU or EEA candidate a stronger footing than most US applicants have: a right against a decision based solely on automated processing where it produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects them 8. That right does not turn on the AI Act's timeline, and whose law actually covers a remote or cross-border application is worth checking on its own before assuming either the US table above or the EU rules reach your specific case.
Should You Bring This Up With a Recruiter?
Where a right exists, bring it up, though the honest answer is that most applications you send fall outside every row in the table above. Asking whether an automated tool is part of the process is a question a well-run hiring team can answer in one sentence, and a team that cannot answer it at all has told you something too. None of the statutes above ask you to prove anything or accuse anyone.
They exist to set a floor for what has to be said before the tool runs, and that floor is worth naming out loud even where it does not legally bind the employer in front of you. Where no statute reaches you, the same question still works as ordinary due diligence rather than as a legal demand. Treat the table as a checklist: find the state the job is posted in, find the state you live in, and check both against the list before deciding whether a formal notice was owed to you at all. A recruiter who answers plainly is telling you something about the rest of the process too.
Common questions
Does every state require notice before AI screens my application?
No. Outside Illinois, New York City, and Maryland's narrow facial-recognition rule, no US jurisdiction currently requires an employer to disclose that AI is part of the process. Most applicants have no statutory notice right at all.
Is the Colorado AI Act in effect?
No. Colorado's original 2024 AI Act never took effect: its start date was pushed back, and it was then repealed and replaced by a narrower law that does not bind employers until January 1, 2027 at the earliest 5.
Can I refuse an AI-analyzed video interview in Illinois?
Yes. Illinois law makes AI analysis of a recorded video interview conditional on your consent, and an employer may not use AI to evaluate a video you did not consent to 1. The statute names no penalty for an employer who lets a refusal affect your standing, so ask what declining means for your application before you decide.
What can I ask for under NYC Local Law 144?
At least ten business days' notice before an automated tool screens you, and the same notice has to let you request an alternative selection process or accommodation, though the law does not guarantee the employer will grant it 6.
References
- 1. Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, 820 ILCS 42 ilga.gov Illinois notice, explanation and consent requirement before AI analyzes a recorded video interview, and the deletion right.
- 2. HB3773 Enrolled (Public Act 103-0804), amending the Illinois Human Rights Act ilga.gov Illinois' 2026 effects-standard amendment and its zip-code proxy ban, cited in the state table.
- 3. Automated Employment Decision Tools: Frequently Asked Questions nyc.gov NYC Local Law 144's ten-business-day notice and bias-audit posting requirement, with its effective and enforcement dates.
- 4. Chapter 446 (House Bill 1202), Labor and Employment - Use of Facial Recognition Services - Prohibition, Md. Code Lab. & Empl. section 3-717 mgaleg.maryland.gov Maryland's written-waiver requirement before facial recognition builds a facial template during an interview.
- 5. SB26-189 Automated Decision-Making Technology - Bill Summary (as enacted) leg.colorado.gov Correcting the widely repeated claim that Colorado's AI Act binds employers today, and dating the replacement law's 2027 start.
- 6. Int. No. 1894-A (enacted as Local Law 144 of 2021), a Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to automated employment decision tools dfs.ny.gov The statutory sentence letting an NYC candidate request an alternative selection process or accommodation.
- 7. Timeline: implementation of the EU AI Act ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu The corrected December 2027 start date for high-risk recruitment AI obligations, replacing the superseded August 2026 date.
- 8. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Official Journal L 119, 4.5.2016 publications.europa.eu GDPR's right against a decision based solely on automated processing with legal or similarly significant effect, in force since 2018 and separate from the AI Act.
8 sources, numbered by first appearance. How Olive sources claims
General guidance, not legal advice. Hiring rules differ by state and country and change often; check anything here against your own counsel before you act on it.
Olive assesses how a person works with AI. It does not detect AI-written documents, and it never produces a score, a ranking, or a match percentage for a person. Candidates read the same report the employer reads.