The Problem
How is it that AI discriminates against people in the job market and how does the problem affect us?
Background information
AI algorithms
Artificial Intelligence is...
“the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings”
-Britannica
​
The key to AI and algorithms is the ability to learn, machine learning techniques. For example, facial recognition technology is developed by feeding the computer pictures of various faces and objects until it understands what to accept as a face.
The Job Market
AI is being used in the job market, as companies are starting to use facial recognition software to hire employees in hopes of eliminating human unconscious bias. 88% of companies globally and 83% of the US already use AI in some form to hire.
The most common method of using AI for employment are online interviews, like the company HireVue provides. Major tech companies, banks, restaurant chains, supermarkets, airlines, and school districts are beginning to use this new hiring technology.
The bias in AI algorithms
Because AI learns from the data given to them and follows the algorithms embedded within them, information will make or break a system.
For example, Amazon was using an algorithm that penalized all job resumes that had key words like "women's" and downgraded candidates who had been linked to women-only colleges. This was not because the AI algorithm was coded to remove women, it was the lack of male resumes that were identified as employment-worthy.
​
On top of that, with AI it is actually harder to eliminate the unconscious bias because it is not a part of the equation or a single data point that unbalances the algorithm. The discrimination is hidden somewhere in the whole system.
Approaching the problem
Who codes matters
​
-
No coincidence that white men develop the algorithm
-
“Full spectrum” teams
-
Those that can check each other's weak points
-
​
How we code matters
​​
-
Factoring in fairness as algorithms are made
​
Why we code matters
​
-
Ai has been used to unlock great wealth → opportunity to unlock greater quality
-
Making social change a priority