Algorithms are the new bouncers at the hiring door, and one of them is now being hauled into court. The New York Times reports that a group of job seekers has sued Eightfold AI, a company whose software ranks applicants on a 1-to-5 scale for employers, arguing that its screening system should be regulated like a credit bureau under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in California, says applicants are shut out by an opaque "black box" that collects data from sources like LinkedIn, scores them, and can block them from ever reaching a human recruiter—with no explanation and no way to fix errors.
Erin Kistler, a veteran tech worker with a computer science degree and one of the plaintiffs in the case, says only 0.3% of her thousands of applications have yielded a follow-up, with some routed through Eightfold's system. Kistler's lawyers, including the nonprofit firm Towards Justice and former federal officials, contend there's "no AI exemption" to consumer protection laws, "which have for decades been an essential tool in protecting job applicants from abuses by third parties," per Reuters.
The legal team wants Eightfold and its clients to be forced to reveal what data they use and how rankings are made. Reuters notes that one-third of Eightfold AI's clients are Fortune 500 companies, including giants like Salesforce. One employment attorney not involved with the case underscores just how tricky it can get when employers decide to wield AI tools to help them make hires. "These tools are designed to be biased," David J. Walton tells the Times. "I mean, they're designed to find a certain type of person. So they are designed to be biased, but they're not designed to improperly be biased. And that's a very fine line."
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