Artificial intelligence (AI) facial expression and voice analysis technology is being used in tens of thousands of job interviews in the UK, including by Unilever.Interviewees film themselves answering a set of identical questions on their mobile phone or laptop, and the technology is then used to analyse people’s language, tone and facial expressions. The technology has been trained using 25,000 pieces of facial and linguistic information compiled from previously successful candidates interviews.
Our Legal and Policy officer, Griff Ferris, said:
“Using a faceless artificial intelligence system to conduct tens of thousands of interviews has really chilling implications for jobseekers.
“This algorithm will be attempting to recognise and measure the extreme complexities of human speech, body language and expression, which will inevitably have a detrimental effect on unconventional applicants.
“As with many of these systems, unless the algorithm has been trained on an extremely diverse dataset there’s a very high likelihood that it may be biased in some way, resulting in candidates from certain backgrounds being unfairly excluded and discriminated against.”
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