As companies turn to artificial intelligence for help making hiring and promotion decisions, contract negotiations between employers and vendors selling algorithms are being dominated by an untested legal question: Who’s liable when a robot discriminates?
The predictive strength of any algorithm is based at least in part on the information it is fed by human sources. That comes with concerns the technology could perpetuate existing biases, whether it is against people applying for jobs, home loans, or unemployment insurance.
Contract talks between vendors who market artificial intelligence services and businesses looking to use algorithms to streamline recruitment are inherently tense. ...