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AI hiring tools may be filtering out the best job applicants (www.bbc.com)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by rimu@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

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an AI resume screener had been trained on CVs of employees already at the firm, giving people extra marks if they listed "baseball" or "basketball" – hobbies that were linked to more successful staff, often men. Those who mentioned "softball" – typically women – were downgraded.

Marginalised groups often "fall through the cracks, because they have different hobbies, they went to different schools"

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[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

McDonalds isn’t going anywhere, no matter how bad their hiring practices get.

I disagree. Screwing up your hiring process is a Darwin Award level mistake for a company. McDonalds is very very good at hiring people and a big part of that is their willingness to hire people who aren't good enough and then giving those people the training they need to succeed at work.

Choosing not to hire someone because they like baseball is insane and there's no way that would fly at McDonalds.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I disagree. Screwing up your hiring process is a Darwin Award level mistake for a company.

Its only a screw-up if it upsets your investors. And it does not seem like the McDonalds EBITDA has suffered over the past few years.

Choosing not to hire someone because they like baseball is insane

The AI tool - according to the article - is using baseball and softball as a proxy for determining whether the applicant is a man or a woman, and biasing its selection accordingly. That's not insane. Its just prejudiced in a manner that evades our comically ill-enforced nondiscrimination enforcement codes.

[–] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

McDonald's actually did suffer in some regard recently. Execs have admitted they need to lower prices or they'll lose business.

I think the thing is, companies always go too far eventually. At some point, they cross the line and have to walk it back. We'll probably see the same thing here. Recruiters will use more and more AI until someone crosses the line, and then there'll be a rapid retreat.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Execs have admitted they need to lower prices or they’ll lose business.

They saw a 40% EBITDA spike in 2022. Then they came off their peak by ten points in 2023.

Overall, enormous net growth.

Recruiters will use more and more AI until someone crosses the line, and then there’ll be a rapid retreat.

Recruiters won't exist once businesses fully integrate AI. All you'll have is performance tuning of the automated hiring tools.