Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the innovation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in hiring practices for remote and in-person workers is not without risk of disparate impact discrimination that has sparked the interest of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and may incur legal challenge in the courts.
According to former EEOC Chair Jennifer R. Yang, while “[B]ig Data has the potential to drive innovations that reduce bias in employment decisions and help employers make better decisions in hiring, performance evaluations, and promotions,” such tools necessitate controls “to promote fairness and opportunity, so that reliance on these expanding sources of data does not create new barriers to opportunity.” Use of Big Data Has Implications for Equal Opportunity, Panel Tells EEOC, U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, Oct. 13, 2016.
