an AI resume screener had been trained on CVs of employees already at the firm, giving people extra marks if they listed “baseball” or “basketball” – hobbies that were linked to more successful staff, often men. Those who mentioned “softball” – typically women – were downgraded.
Marginalised groups often “fall through the cracks, because they have different hobbies, they went to different schools”
Its only a screw-up if it upsets your investors. And it does not seem like the McDonalds EBITDA has suffered over the past few years.
The AI tool - according to the article - is using baseball and softball as a proxy for determining whether the applicant is a man or a woman, and biasing its selection accordingly. That’s not insane. Its just prejudiced in a manner that evades our comically ill-enforced nondiscrimination enforcement codes.
McDonald’s actually did suffer in some regard recently. Execs have admitted they need to lower prices or they’ll lose business.
I think the thing is, companies always go too far eventually. At some point, they cross the line and have to walk it back. We’ll probably see the same thing here. Recruiters will use more and more AI until someone crosses the line, and then there’ll be a rapid retreat.
They saw a 40% EBITDA spike in 2022. Then they came off their peak by ten points in 2023.
Overall, enormous net growth.
Recruiters won’t exist once businesses fully integrate AI. All you’ll have is performance tuning of the automated hiring tools.