Concern about New York’s landmark AI bias law |
New York City’s landmark mandate for audits of artificial intelligence systems used in hiring is posing some compliance challenges because, unlike familiar financial audits that have been refined over many years of accounting experience, the AI audit process is new and without clearly established guidelines. “There is a major concern, which is it’s not clear exactly what constitutes an AI audit,” observes Andrew Burt, managing partner at AI-focused law firm BNH. “If you are an organisation that’s using some type of these tools . . . it can be pretty confusing.” The law, which comes into effect in January, will require local companies to conduct audits to assess biases, including along race and gender lines, in the AI systems they use in hiring. Nearly a quarter of companies’ human resources departments use automation, AI, or both to support HR activities, according to research that the Society for Human Resource Management published earlier this year. The number rises to 42% among companies with more than 5,000 employees. Lindsey Zuloaga, the chief data scientist at talent platform HireVue, which offers software that can automate interviews, warns that if companies aren’t careful, AI can “be very biased at scale. Which is scary.” |
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