New York City Proposes Regulating Algorithms Used in Hiring
The ideal is that algorithms would help even the playing field and remove bias. More and more evidence shows that bias is built into algorithms and create an awful feedback loop of “science” backed prejudice. New laws will be required to keep up with emerging tech, how that looks is still up for debate.
Legislation proposed in the New York City Council seeks to update hiring discrimination rules for the age of algorithms. The bill would require companies to disclose to candidates when they have been assessed with the help of software. Companies that sell such tools would have to perform annual audits to check that their people-sorting tech doesn’t discriminate.
Some civil rights groups and AI experts also oppose the bill—for different reasons. Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, organized a letter from 12 groups including the NAACP and New York University’s AI Now Institute objecting to the proposed law. Cahn wants to regulate hiring tech, but he says the New York proposal could allow software that perpetuates discrimination to get rubber-stamped as having passed a fairness audit.
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