Earlier this summer, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – which operates as part of the Department of Labor – released guidance to employers on how to leverage AI in the hiring process while remaining compliant with prohibitions against race, ethnicity, sex, and disability discrimination.
The EEOC Chair, Charolette Burrows, said this week that moving forward, the use of AI in the hiring process is only going to increase, but her team will work to make sure it’s being done fairly under the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
During a Brookings Institution event on Oct. 18, Burrows touted that the EEOC has been working closely with the White House and the Department of Justice (DoJ) on AI in recruitment and retention practices.
“We do work as part of this whole of government effort to make sure we are on point on this issue,” Burrows said.
Earlier this year, the EEOC joined heads of DoJ’s Civil Rights Division, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission to make it clear that even as new cutting-edge technologies emerge, “we have currently laws on the books that we intend to enforce.”
“As the conversation about new technologies and the need for new laws has been evolving, there’s started to creep in this thought that we’re in a law-free zone here. That is not the case,” Burrows said. “Just because the Civil Rights Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act didn’t talk about AI, because it didn’t exist yet, does not mean that when you step into employment, and you have a hiring procedure, you don’t have to worry about your civil rights obligations.”
“That is not the case. And we wanted to just be clear about it because it seems to be getting confused,” she said. “I think new authorities might be needed and certainly welcome, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to use what we already have.”
Burrows said that organizations have embraced the AI guidance positively, noting that they are mostly appreciative and curious. The guidance, she said, helps business leaders to see pain points that they weren’t aware of before.
Burrows said that the EEOC will work to continue to educate themselves and the public about AI in employment. She emphasized that the commission is seen internationally as leading in this issue, but not so much when it comes to actual regulation and governance.
“There’s a lot of innovation and money to be made in this area with these tools. The question is, how are you going to do it,” Burrows asked. “But the purpose I think, and I’m not sure there’s a lot of folks would disagree with this, is to make everyone’s lives easier. So how can you possibly do that if you are at the same time not paying attention to these democratic principles of fairness and equal justice.”
