The Scoop: Recruitment Trends & Industry Insights | December 2019

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Here is your December guide to the latest trends in technology, labor markets and industry insights. This month we’re focusing on all things AI! We’ve highlighted the biggest news affecting the industry and explain what to expect as new trends continue to emerge.

DID YOU REGIFT THIS CHATBOT?  

Just in time for the holidays, Facebook recently rolled out a chatbot for its workers. No, not for greater work efficiency. The “Liam Bot” was created to help employees seamlessly navigate dinner table conversation. Considering the flurry of media attention, the tech company has received lately, the bot provides PR team-sanctioned answers to help employees navigate questions from loved ones.

If a relative asked how Facebook handled hate speech, for example, the
chatbot … would instruct the employee to answer with these points:
– Facebook consults with experts on the matter.
– It has hired more moderators to police its content.
– It is working on AI to spot hate speech.
– Regulation is important for addressing the issue.  

It would also suggest citing statistics from a Facebook report about how
the company enforces its standards.

Liam Bot answers questions and links to reference material on the company’s blog and news releases. Whether or not employees toe the company line, this is an interesting use-case for chatbot in the employment space. As adjacent conversations about employers’ stance on diversity, pay equity, etc., become more visible, it’s possible this type of engagement information delivery with workers may become the norm. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/technology/facebook-chatbot-workers.html


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CIRCLING THE WAGONS ON AI LEGISLATION IN HR: THE EEOC FINALLY WEIGHS IN 

Over the years, technology has streamlined the job application process. As the number of resumes for each job opening continues to increase, the tech market has again stepped in to increase efficiency in the recruitment process. From advertising to selection, a greater number of employers use AI-powered tools that have been increasingly coming under scrutiny from advocacy groups and policymakers (check out the June edition of The Scoop, Artificial Intelligence Regulation and Legislation). 

AI is showing up in more and more spaces of our lives; there is no stopping progress. Proponents for using these tools point to increased efficiency in spend, reduced assumptions about where to post jobs, and the calibration of data such as commute time to provide greater insight into candidate needs. However, the opposition focuses on factors such as additional bias from tools that include functions such as facial recognition, and the propensity for the algorithms to optimize for an end of which its users may be unaware.

“… Even if you explicitly instruct a machine learning tool not to discriminate against women, it might inadvertently learn to discriminate against other proxies associated with being female, like having graduated from a women’s college.”

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/12/20993665/artificial-intelligence-ai-job-screen

And while equal employment opportunity laws haven’t changed much in this regard since the 70s, the EEOC is reportedly now investigating at least two discrimination cases involving job decision algorithms used to help make hiring, promotion, and other job decisions.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/punching-in-workplace-bias-police-look-at-hiring-algorithms


POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: THE RACE FOR PRESIDENT SHINES MORE LIGHT ON AI AND OUR DAILY LIVES 

The conversation has shifted from “the robots will take our jobs” to a greater focus on the implementation of AI and automation. As presidential hopefuls lay out their plans for the future, they’re being tasked with providing their approach for U.S. AI dominance to keep pace with international rivals, and at the same time ensuring that there are regulations in place to thwart misuse and be a source for social good. 

In the long run, whether each candidate’s strategic approach focuses on reframing the players, with an eye toward public-private partnerships, or tackles the topic from a broad national policy and initiative lens, they will be shaping the future of AI in America. In the short run, politics has created a unique spotlight that has thrust the topic more firmly into the minds of Americans who have become increasingly skeptical as a result of the national attention around issues dealing with bias and transparency. Ultimately, we will find the “middle way,” but with much more friction to get there than innovators had hoped.

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/473794-the-great-ai-debate-what-candidates-are-finally-saying-about-artificial

GOOGLE’S NEW PUSH INTO EXPLAINABLE AI: A MOVE TOWARD MORE ALGORITHMIC DECISIONS

Beyond legislation, for tech companies developing solutions powered by AI, the increased focus on algorithmic bias in our everyday systems has led to addressing the “Blackbox” problem. In 2017, Google committed to be an AI-first organization, so it should come as no surprise that the tech company has announced a new initiative, Explainable AI. 

“Explainable AI is a set of tools and frameworks to help you develop interpretable and inclusive machine learning models and deploy them with confidence. With it, you can understand feature attributions in AutoML Tables and AI Platform and visually investigate model behavior using the What-If Tool.”

While still in Beta, Google’s set of tools, such as “Model Cards” that provide information about the performance and potential shortcomings of the face- and object-detection models and – my favorite – the scenario analysis “What-If tool,” aim to provide greater depth of insight into the data and model behind the outcomes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50506431

ROUNDING OUT THE SCOOP: PSYCH, SOCIAL, LABOR AND TECH

About Jahkedda Akbar Mitchell

Jahkedda has many years of experience providing strategic guidance, data, and insights on job-seeker trends in support of Radancy and its clients. She has also worked in-house on the candidate attraction team for a large fortune 500 company. Jahkedda has a passion for psychology and storytelling; understanding why we do what we do and how to change behaviors...only using her powers for good. Jahkedda is a member of Radancy Labs: a design thinking focused innovation lab.

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