Humans have proved too biased when hiring; can AI serve minorities better?
Artificial intelligence is presented as being less prejudiced than people, but it is not perfect, even algorithms can carry programmers’ implicit biases
New York — Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to make hiring an unbiased utopia. There is certainly plenty of room for improvement. Employee referrals, a process that tends to leave underrepresented groups out, still make up a bulk of companies’ hires. Recruiters and hiring managers also bring their own biases to the process, studies have found, often choosing people with the "right-sounding" names and educational background. Across the pipeline, companies lack racial and gender diversity, with the ranks of underrepresented people thinning at the highest levels of the corporate ladder. Fewer than 5% of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are women — and there are only three black CEOs. Racial diversity among Fortune 500 boards is almost as dismal, as four of the five new appointees to boards in 2016 were white. "Identifying high-potential candidates is very subjective," said Alan Todd, CEO of CorpU, a technology platform for leadership development. "People pick who they like based on u...
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