Mixed Results For AI In Hiring

Illinois and Maryland have statutes that regulate the use of A.I.in hiring, and California will soon follow suit. In an article in Fortune, Gary D. Friedman, an employment litigator at Weil, Gotshal and Manges, notes that 79 percent of employers now use A.I. and/or automation for recruitment and hiring, with the goal of reducing unconscious bias in employment decision-making. He calls the results promising. A.I. has proven helpful in several areas related to diversity in hiring — anonymizing resumes and interviewees, performing structured interviews, and using neuroscience games to identify traits, skills, and behaviors.  Nevertheless, concerns over fairness and objectivity persist. Amazon stopped using AI after it determined that it perpetuated bias, mostly because of sample hiring data provided to the algorithm which skewed heavily male due to the preponderance of men in the tech workforce. That in turn caused the A.I. tool to teach itself that men were preferable candidates. Data & Trust Alliance is a corporate group that has developed “Algorithmic Bias Safeguards for Workforce” with the goal of detecting, mitigating, and monitoring algorithmic bias in workforce decisions.