AI-Powered Hiring Tools Have Failed to Reduce Bias, New Study Claims

In recent years, there has been an increase in the usage of AI tools that are advertised as a solution to the lack of diversity in the workforce. These tools range from chatbots and CV scrapers to aid companies in hiring employees. Users of such tools claim that it eliminates gender and ethnic biases in hiring by utilizing algorithms that analyze job applicants through their speech patterns, expressions, and other aspects. However, researchers from Cambridge's Centre for Gender Studies contend that AI recruiting tools are superficial and equivalent to "automated pseudoscience" in a recent report published in Philosophy and Technology. They claim it is a risky instance of "technosolutionism" - the use of technology to address complex issues like discrimination without making the necessary investments or alterations to organizational culture.