[LI] Selling employee referrals; AI, language & ways of knowing

A repost and a post to LinkedIn. Both relate to ethical issues in employment in the tech industry, with the first focusing on the recent practice of employees selling their referrals to potential outside applicants. The second is an article about issues related to Google AI's abrupt firing of an employee, due to aspects of …

[LI] Two quick takes on UNESCO’s Panel on Ethics of AI

Two replies to posts on LinkedIn announcing the High-Level Panel on Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) run by UNESCO on 24 November 2020. In the first, I suggest an amendment to a statement by UNESCO Asst. Dir. Gabriela Ramos (from an image in the post), and in the second I raise several questions, including about …

[LI] Online self-assessments; AI-driven “frontier” in hiring

A reply and a post on LinkedIn regarding aspects of AI in hiring, including ethics. Reply to post by Roya Bauman about an online self-assessment for a job application taken through OutMatch HCM, November 2020 (posted November 2020) Thanks for sharing. Seems from your posts that your experience as one who has been and hopes …

[LI] The other lesson from Coombs’ job application bot (2 items)

Three and a half years after its publication, Robert Coombs' article, "I Built A Bot To Apply To Thousands Of Jobs At Once–Here’s What I Learned" (Fast Company, 23 March 2017), is still getting attention. Most reactions, such as the two on LinkedIn I reply to below, focus on his "lower tech strategy" conclusion of …

[LI] The real problem with FR; personal avatars in governance?

Two disparate items posted to LinkedIn on social uses of cutting-edge technologies: the fundamental moral problem with facial recognition (FR); and a proposal for personal "software agents" for direct democracy that points to the potential for such technology in other domains. "Opposing facial recognition — why focusing on accuracy misses the point," by Dorothea Baur, …

[LI] AI job interviews (3 items)

Three brief considerations of AI interviews in hiring, posted to LinkedIn. "Unilever saves on recruiters by using AI to assess job interviews: System analyses body language and word choice, but polling suggests public are opposed to such use of automation," by Robert Booth, Ideas.TED.com, 25 October 2019 (posted November 2019) Expanding use of AI in …

[LI] AI vs AI; using biological data for better storytelling

Two items posted to LinkedIn, one about "AI" designed to interdict data gathering by other "AI," and the other relating to research on gathering biological data to help map one's "social media DNA" and tailor storytelling. The first item shapes part of my response to the second. "Researchers Created AI That Hides Your Emotions From …

[LI] Robots shouldn’t look like us; Why gender voice assistants?

Two items posted to LinkedIn, relating to making robots look, or AI voice assistants sound, like humans. My take is we should not be going there. "Should robots ever look like us?: Humanoid robots are a familiar trope in popular culture, but is making machines look like us a little bit creepy and even potentially …

[LI] Matching skills & positions; AI copywriter

Items posted on LinkedIn: how organizations match skills and positions, and a successful AI ad writer. I find in these reasons to return, respectively, to the related ideas of "intelligent agents" working for individuals (here as employees in an organization), and AI to handle the repetitive & formulaic writing needed in job seeking. "Why Talented …

[LI] AI & power; AI & BS

AI - artificial intelligence - is discussed as an areal of technology with immense potential as well as some risks. AI, is also a term that is used popularly in various ways. I posted two items to LinkedIn highlighting these two aspects - specifically the way AI research is being dominated by a few tech …