Judge signals AI recruitment tool vendors like Workday may not escape liability for discrimination

Workday’s platform is meant to provide insights on how well a candidate’s qualifications match the requirements of a posted job, the company said. Those tools focus only on qualifications listed in a candidate’s application, which are compared to qualifications identified by the employer as important for the job.

Workday’s Chief Responsible AI Officer Kelly Trindel said its AI does not make employment decisions, automatically reject candidates, or determine who gets a job; further, she said, there is no evidence that the company’s tools result in harm to protected groups.

Trindel, who is former chief analyst of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), leads a dedicated team composed of psychologists and PhD-level data scientists whose sole focus is to ensure that its AI is “responsible, fair, and ethical.” She said that the company’s AI systems undergo ongoing reviews throughout their lifecycle to help prevent unintended consequences, and Workday is “committed to accountability, transparency, and trust,” and invests “significant resources” into identifying and mitigating bias.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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