Future of Hiring

Like many other students trying to find a job or internship this year, I was subject to a relatively new form of recruiting: the AI interview. Recruiting is a long and expensive process for companies, and it is rarely perfect. As a result, many big companies such as Goldman Sachs and General Motors have turned to AI interviews to lighten the human workload. One of the biggest companies selling this service is Hirevue. Hirevue utilizes AI technology driven by the data of what they believe to be an ideal candidate to fuel its decision making process. The AI technology analyzes factors like facial expressions, tone of voice and language, and other data points to create a score for each interviewee. At first glance this seems to be a solution for quickly and equally evaluating candidates, but the use of data and AI can create inequity in the hiring process. In “Exploring Data Justice,” the author, Dencik, forebodes readers of the dangers of big data. Many parallels can be drawn between the practices of Hirevue and the problems of inequity that Dencik brings up. The use of data sourced from companies’ current hiring practices is inherently inequitable. When the picture of an ideal candidate closely resembles that of an upper middle class individual with an elite university education, the AI using the data will have clear biases. When speech analysis is done on vocal tone and vocabulary, it can lead to a negative bias against non-native English speakers and members of under-represented groups.

Another popular recruiting software with similar AI hiring technologies is Pymetrics. Pymetrics utilizes a series of mini games to determine candidate employability. Once again, arbitrary factors are utilized to come up with some quantifiable score. These AI interviews resemble the pseudo-science of IQ tests both in inaccuracy and apparent biases. The misuse of big data will only continue to propagate when the incentive of efficiency and profit exists for these companies. Equitable use of data cannot exist under the framework of capitalism, and the adoption of AI interviews serve as a recent example. Beyond the strangeness of having to play mini games and talk to myself through a webcam to participate in the rat race, the use of AI interviews is deeply problematic and will cause further inequity in our society.