AI’s Unfair Recruitment Bias

16

October

2022

No ratings yet.

Inherent human bias

As the COVID pandemic was disrupting day-to-day operations of business, so did it disrupt formalized recruitment processes. This entailed not being able to meet candidates in-person but having to rely on ever increasing number of interviews. However, the established recruitment processes have been under increased scrutiny due to inherent biases. Bias is unavoidable, with it simply being how human brains operate, rather than a character flaw (Holzwarth, 2021). Naturally, to mitigate the occurrence of bias and enable hiring diversity, companies started implementing new virtual technologies into their hiring practices (Gartner, 2020) with startups like Retorio, myInterview, and HireVue gaining traction.

The AI HR automation companies

The startups at the forefront of the HR revolution were able to implement AI into various segments of the recruitment process. Retorio solves the problem of recruitment biases through the implementation of AI in candidate’s video applications to give every candidate a chance to leave a personal impression (Retorio, 2022). MyInterview largely follows the same principle with implementation of machine learning in the analysis of video interviews (myInterview, 2022). Lastly, HireVue expands upon these capabilities with the inclusion of conversational AI as a text-powered recruiting assistant, AI-powered CV screening, and video interviewing (HireVue, 2022). All the afore mentioned companies claim they can reduce recruitment bias and find the best person for the job.

The Review

Drage and Mackereth (2022) put these claims to the test within their recent study and have found that the statements offered by the companies are largely misleading. Firstly, it attempts to strip gender and race from AI system that often misunderstand what they are. Secondly, by failing to address fundamental issues within firms, AI-powered hiring tools risk furthering already existing cultures of inequality and discrimination. Thirdly, the supposed objectivity of AI hiring tools’ evaluations of candidates’ qualities conceals the influence that exists between the observer and the observed. Lastly, by creating correlations between words and people’s bodies, recruitment AI systems build the “perfect candidate” that they claim to identify.

The Critique

The authors argue that industry practitioners behind the hiring AI technologies must shift from correcting individualized bias instances to considering broader inequalities that shape the recruitment process. It appears that companies have been using the AI tools as a silver bullet that will enable diversity hiring at a relatively low cost without major disruptions to the company’s culture and values. With the increased pressure from the regulators and the AI ethics community, time will tell how these supposedly neutral technologies will develop and whether they will be able to achieve their initial mission of being truly neutral.

Drage, E., Mackereth, K., Drage, E., & Mackereth, K. (2022). Does AI Debias Recruitment? Race, Gender, and AI’s “Eradication of Difference.” 35, 89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-022-00543-1

Gartner. (2020, April 30). Virtual Interviews to Hire Candidates During COVID | Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-30-gartner-hr-survey-shows-86–of-organizations-are-cond

HireVue. (2022). End-to-End Hiring Software with Video Interviewing | HireVue. https://www.hirevue.com/platform

Holzwarth, A. (2021, February 18). How To Actually Hire For Diversity. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alineholzwarth/2021/02/18/how-to-actually-hire-for-diversity/?sh=7ce9cfd746f9

myInterview. (2022). Product Intelligence | myInterview: Intelligent Candidate Video Screening. https://www.myinterview.com/product-intelligence

Retorio. (2022). Retorio | video AI that reveals personality across talent management. https://www.retorio.com/

Please rate this

Virtual Power Plants – The future of energy?

7

October

2022

No ratings yet.

Trends on the energy market

The adoption of renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines, as well as the explosion of electric cars (EVs) hitting the roads, have brought the power market into the public eye greatly in recent years. However, without the digitalization of the grid and the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, the application of these technologies would not have been conceivable (Stagnaro & Benedettini, 2020). In addition, the adoption of small-scale electricity generators (such solar panels on homes) on its edge caused disturbance in opposite energy flows, which put the grid, which for decades operated downstream – imagine from a major power plant to the households – in significant risk. As a result, the current electric energy market faces challenges in balancing the system, both on the demand and supply side.  

The Virtual Power Plant

These developments provided a solid foundation for the Virtual Power Plant (VPP), a novel form of business model (Lehmbruck et al., 2020). As the name suggests, the VPP operator connects distributed energy sources rather than producing energy from its own sources. Instead, they function as an aggregator. Small-scale PV systems, battery storage systems, small-scale hydro, biogas, or wind plants, as well as backup diesel generators, can all be considered among these. Basically, any device that has the ability to generate electricity and connect to a smart meter qualifies to be a component of the VPP. 

How does it work?

The VPP operator aggregates these technologies and offers their pooled capacity on the energy market. Most common application is in frequency balancing where in case of a lack of capacity in the grid, the Grid operator will request the activation of the additional capacity via the VPP. The VPP operator dispatches the required capacity using its platform which is powered by an algorithm which is able to forecast the possibility of activation. Dispatching the requested energy therefore balances the system and both the VPP operator and the prosumers within the VPP are financially rewarded for offering the flexibility (Lehmbruck et al., 2020). 

Are VPP’s the future?

VPP operators have taken off in multiple European markets with the largest one, Next Kraftwerke, passing 10,000 megawatt (MW) of aggregated generation capacity (Next Kraftwerke, 2022).For context, this capacity currently surpasses some of the world’s largest nuclear power plants(Power Technology, 2019), while being distributed and connected to renewable energy sources. Will the flexibility of a Virtual Power Plant be able to surpass traditional energy market models? Most likely, the two will become complementary to one another with fixed demand being offered by traditional operators, and flexibility being offered by the Virtual Power Plant operators. However, only time will tell. 

Lehmbruck, L., Kretz, J., Aengenvoort, J., & Sioshansi, F. (2020). Aggregation of front- and behind-the-meter: the evolving VPP business model. In Behind and Beyond the Meter (pp. 211–232). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819951-0.00010-4 

Next Kraftwerke. (2022, April 21). Next Kraftwerke reaches 10,000 MW of aggregated capacity. https://www.next-kraftwerke.com/news/10000-megawatt-of-aggregated-capacity 

Power Technology. (2019, June 26). Largest nuclear power plants: Ranking the top ten by capacity. https://www.power-technology.com/analysis/feature-largest-nuclear-power-plants-world/ 

Stagnaro, C., & Benedettini, S. (2020). Smart meters: the gate to behind-the-meter? In Behind and Beyond the Meter (pp. 251–265). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819951-0.00012-8 

 ​ 

Please rate this