The AI hiring industry is under scrutinybut it’ll be hard to fix – MIT Technology Review

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate HireVue, an AI tool that helps companies figure out which workers to hire.

Whats HireVue? HireVue is one of a growing number of artificial intelligence tools that companies use to assess job applicants. The algorithm analyzes video interviews, using everything from word choice to facial movements to figure out an employability score that is compared against that of other applicants. More than 100 companies have already used it on over a million applicants, according to the Washington Post.

Whats the problem? Its hard to predict which workers will be successful from things like facial expressions. Worse, critics worry that the algorithm is trained on limited data and so will be more likely to mark traditional applicants (white, male) as more employable. As a result, applicants who deviate from the traditionalincluding people dont speak English as a native language or who are disabledare likely to get lower scores, experts say. Plus, it encourages applicants to game the system by interviewing in a way that they know HireVue will like.

Whats next? AI hiring tools are not well regulated, and addressing the problem will be hard for a few reasons.

Most companies wont release their data or explain how the algorithms work, so its very difficult to prove any bias. Thats part of the reason there have been no major lawsuits so far. The EPIC complaint, which suggests that HireVues promise violates the FTCs rules against unfair and deceptive practices, is a start. But its not clear if anything will happen. The FTC has received the complaint but has not said whether it will pursue it.

Other attempts to prevent bias are well-meaning but limited. Earlier this year, Illinois lawmakers passed a law that requires employers to at least tell job seekers that theyll be using these algorithms, and to get their consent. But thats not very useful. Many people are likely to consent simply because they dont want to lose the opportunity.

Finally, just like AI in health or AI in the courtroom, artificial intelligence in hiring will re-create societys biases, which is a complicated problem. Regulators will need to figure out how much responsibility companies should be expected to shoulder in avoiding the mistakes of a prejudiced society.

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The AI hiring industry is under scrutinybut it'll be hard to fix - MIT Technology Review