AI Algorithms Used in HR Hiring Are Biased; Will the Fix Make It Worse for Whites?
December 17, 2021
Unfair AI-based bias is a problem for job candidates, companies, and the economy. Now a new alliance is vowing to help identify and eliminate it.
As reported by Clint Rainey in Fast Company: Large, popular companies today often wade through millions of job applications each year. That duty itself could fill several full-time jobs, which is why they’ve all trained algorithms to winnow at least the first round of candidates. It’s an approach that’s spawned a thriving side-economy, “work tech.” But research shows this automated screening process can reject qualified workers who don’t instantly meet the machine’s programmed-in criteria—which, it so happens, also tend to be based on past strong applicants, who were often white, American, and male. Today, some of America’s largest companies are vowing to implement new safeguards that seek to eliminate this type of bias.
“It’s the first initiative by a new group called the Data & Trust Alliance, and the aim is to offer companies that rely on AI hiring a tool kit to identify then eliminate unfair bias. The business partners include 21 large corporations—among them Walmart, Nike, Meta, IBM, American Express, Mastercard, CVS, Deloitte, General Motors, Humana, Nielsen, and Under Armour. The alliance itself was formed last year by former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, who felt that letting AI solve all of business’s problems was starting to have risks.”
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