Source: Radio New Zealand
Thomas Lefebvre / Unsplash
Advocates say the use of AI to screen job applications is dehumanising and creates bias.
The technology is used by companies like McDonalds and Woolworths to process applications en masse, but handing the reins to a computer has Unite Union’s assistant national secretary Gerard Hehir uneasy.
“AIs are basically black boxes, because they’re not just implementing the code, they are learning and developing their own logic and system, it basically becomes a black box” he said.
“No one actually knows, at the heart of it, an AI system, how it actually makes a decision.”
Though the technology had first been marketed as a way to eliminate bias, Hehir said it had done the opposite.
“Time and time again over recent years we have seen, and there’s been in-depth studies, that of course the processes themselves often reflect the biases of those that wrote them and designed them,” he said.
“Far from actually removing the bias, they reinforce or even amplify the bias.”
Hehir said AI worked best when it was screening applicants against clear requirements, such as having a driver’s licence or the correct visa.
But he feared some companies were using AI to make subjective decisions about an applicant’s personality.
“If it’s used to assess hard, measurable criteria, no, not a problem. But when it’s making evaluations like what’s your emotional response to a question or whether you sounded a bit stressed or depressed or something like that, that is a major problem, I think it is dehumanising.”
Feedback on teen’s personality
Kapiti mum Louise Hinton had been helping her 16-year-old son apply for jobs, but was shocked when the AI used by Woolworths gave unsolicited feedback about his personality.
The AI told her son he would struggle with distractions, and didn’t like to try new things, all based on a short text conversation.
“I’m worried about his confidence, he’s dyslexic and he does have the barriers and he’s also colourblind,” Hinton explained
“For him to have that feedback, it was kind of tearing strips off him. It’s like, well, why would you want to go through that again?”
Hinton said using AI instead of a real person felt cheap.
“Just lazy, soul-destroying,” she said.
“These internationally run companies, well, the staff on the ground have no say in anything. They’re not on the ground level, they’re not talking to real people, they’re not understanding the needs and wants, they’re just all behind computers, looking at data.”
Project Employ, an organisation that trained neurodiverse New Zealanders and helps them find work, had similar concerns.
Its employment programme lead, Emily Norton, said AI created a barrier for many of the people she works with.
“Anybody who is a little bit outside the box is really disadvantaged. I don’t know exactly what the AI is looking for, but I’m guessing that it’s things like extroversion and eye contact and smiling and being articulate, and all of that’s so hard for our grads,” she said.
AFP/ NurPhoto – Jonathan Raa
‘A slightly perverse situation’
Dr Andrew Lensen, a senior lecturer on AI at Victoria University, said the technology had radically changed the employment process on both sides.
He said jobseekers were using AI to generate their applications, while employers were using AI to read them.
“We sort of ended up in a slightly perverse situation where we have people who write lots of applications with AI and then we have employers who are using AI to screen applications,” he said.
“So you kind of end up with AI screening AI, which is a little bit dystopian, right?”
Lensen said being involved in hiring decisions himself made him understand the need for a human touch.
“More often than not, it’s not until you actually meet someone and talk to them that you get a good sense of, first of all, whether they’re a good fit for the job and whether the job’s a good fit for them, but also how much of what they said on their CV or application is actually true in practice,” he explained.
Woolworths told RNZ it regularly reviewed its tools for bias and offered non-AI alternatives to candidates who requested them.
“We use AI tools to help manage the initial stages of recruitment for some roles, but AI does not make hiring decisions; those are always made by our hiring leaders,” a spokesperson said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
