Want a job? Employers say: Talk to the computer
Online services that interview job applicants remotely by webcam and use artificial intelligence to assess their skills mushroomed in popularity during the pandemic and into the subsequent economic recovery
June 15, 2021, 11:38 PM
7 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleDana Anthony works at her desk at The Daily Tar Heel newspaper in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, April 13, 2021. Anthony was rejected after two speparate HireVue interviews for other jobs recently. The pandemic has heightened demand for online services that interview job applicants remotely and use artificial intelligence to assess their skills. But the technology also raises questions about whether computers can accurately judge a person's character traits and emotional cues. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
A day after her interview for a part-time job at Target last year, Dana Anthony got an email informing her she didn't make the cut.
Anthony didn't know why — a situation common to most job seekers at one point or another. But she also had no sense at all of how the interview had gone, because her interviewer was a computer.
More job-seekers, including some professionals, may soon have to accept impersonal online interviews where they never talk to another human being, or know if behind-the-scenes artificial-intelligence systems are influencing hiring decisions. Demand for online hiring services, which interview job applicants remotely via laptop or phone, mushroomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains high amid a perceived worker shortage as the economy opens back up.
These systems claim to save employers money, sidestep hidden biases that can influence human recruiters and expand the range of potential candidates. Many now also use AI to assess candidate skills by analyzing what they say.
Anthony likes to look an interviewer in the eyes, but all she could see was her own face reflected in the screen. “I interview better in person because I’m able to develop a connection with the person,” she said.
But experts question whether machines can accurately and fairly judge a person’s character traits and emotional signals. Algorithms tasked to learn who's the best fit for a job can entrench bias if they're taking cues from industries where racial and gender disparities are already prevalent.
And when a computer screens out some candidates and elevates others without explanation, it's harder to know if it's making fair assessments. Anthony, for instance, couldn't help wondering if her identity as a Black woman affected the decision.
“If you apply for a job and are rejected because of a biased algorithm, you certainly won’t know,” said Oxford University researcher Aislinn Kelly-Lyth. In a face-to-face interview, by contrast, a job seeker might pick up discriminatory cues from the interviewer, she said.
New rules proposed by the European Union would subject such AI hiring systems to tighter regulation. Advocates have pushed for similar measures in the U.S.
One of the leading companies in the field, Utah-based HireVue, gained notoriety in recent years by using AI technology to assess personality and job skills from an applicant's facial expressions during the interview. After heated criticism centered on the scientific validity of those claims and the potential for bias, the company announced earlier this year it would end the practice.
But its AI-based assessments, which rank the skills and personalities of applicants to flag the most promising for further review, still consider speech and word choices in its decisions.
The privately owned company helped create a market for “on-demand” video interviews. Its known customers have included retailers like Target and Ikea, major tech companies like Amazon, banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, oil giants, restaurant chains, supermarkets, airlines, cruise lines and school districts. The Associated Press reached out to numerous brand-name employers that use the technology; most declined to discuss it.
