Why even unbiased AI can seem unfair in job interviews

Today, many companies, organizations, and employment agencies use artificial intelligence (AI) to help them in the recruitment process. According to a new study carried out by German and Swedish researchers, most job applicants trust the avatars conducting their interviews. This trust, however, deteriorates if they do not get the job. How fair applicants think this ... Read more The post Why even unbiased AI can seem unfair in job interviews appeared first on Market Business News .

How fair applicants think this decision is depends on the identity characteristics of the avatar. The test subjects, consisting of 220 volunteers from the UK, Germany, and the US, who were most similar to their avatars in terms of skin color or gender, were more likely to feel that they had been treated unfairly. The ones who differed the most, on the other hand, were also less likely to feel they had been unfairly treated.

This finding surprised the researchers, who had expected the opposite. The number of employers who use AI in their hiring processes is rising rapidly. Initially, these tools just evaluated candidates’ CVs.

Today, however, they can conduct interviews and decide who to hire or turn down. The four AI avatars and four participant–avatar matching conditions used in the study. “Avatars” are computer-generated people who interact and behave like human beings.

Today, they can move, smile, frown, talk, make eye contact, nod, ask questions, and respond to answers. Apart from saving a lot of time, many experts say that AI is more impartial than human beings. Enkelejda Kasneci, professor of Human-Centered Technologies for Learning at the Technical University of Munich, who was involved in the study, said: “What has been largely overlooked so far is that we all unconsciously react to the avatars’ appearance, even when we know we’re talking to a machine.

That’s why a conversation with artificial intelligence becomes a social interaction as soon as it behaves like a human.” Simulated interviews Lead

Source and reference

author Ka Hei Carrie Lau, a doctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, and colleagues wanted to find out how job applicants perceive AI decisions in job interviews. They focused on how an avatar’s appearance might influence applicants’ perceptions of fairness if they didn’t get the job. The volunteers took part in short simulated job interviews. They pretended to apply for a position in a fictional company’s customer support department. A photorealistic avatar capable of reacting to their answers and asking follow-up questions in a human-like way interviewed them. The avatar could appear as: Male with light skin Female with light skin Male with dark skin Female with dark skin The researchers also monitored the volunteers’ eye movements with eye-tracking technology. They completed a questionnaire after the interview. Eye Tracking Differences That the eye-tracking...

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