Читать книгу We Humans and the Intelligent Machines - Jörg Dräger - Страница 26

Kyle Behm just does not get it anymore.¹⁰ He has applied for a temporary student job at seven supermarkets in Macon, Georgia. He wants to arrange products on shelves, label them with prices, work in the warehouse – everything you do in a store to earn a few extra dollars while going to college. The activities are not excessively demanding, so he is half horrified, half incredulous when one rejection after the other arrives in his e-mail inbox. Behm is not invited to a single interview.

His father cannot understand the rejections either. He looks at the applications that his son sent – there is nothing to complain about. Kyle Behm even has experience in retail and is a good student. His father, a lawyer, starts investigating and discovers the reason. All seven supermarkets use similar online personality tests. Kyle suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental illness, which the computer programs recognized when they evaluated the tests. All the supermarkets rejected his application as a result.

Behm’s father encourages him to take legal action against one of the companies. He wants to know whether it is permissible to categorically block a young man from entering the labor market simply because an algorithm is being used. Especially since Behm is in treatment for his illness and is on medication. Moreover, his doctors have no doubt that he could easily do the job he applied for. Before the case goes to trial, the company offers an out-of-court settlement. Behm obviously had a good chance of winning his case.

Larger companies in particular are increasingly relying on algorithms to presort candidates before asking some in for an interview. The method is effective and inexpensive. An algorithmic system has no problem doing it, even if several thousand applications are to be considered. However, it can become a problem for certain groups of people if all companies in an industry use a similar algorithm. Where in the past a single door might have closed, they now all close at once. The probability of such “monopolies” being formed is increasing because digital markets in particular adhere to the principle “The winner takes it all,” i.e. one company or product wins out and displaces all competitors. Eventually only one software application remains – to presort jobseekers or to grant loans.

That does not bother a lot of companies: Such software allows them to save time and increase the effectiveness of their recruiting procedures. And for some applicants the algorithmic preselection also works out since their professional competence and personal qualities count more than the reputation of the university they attended, or their name, background or whatever else might have previously prevented them from getting the job (see Chapter 12). While some people’s chances on the labor market increase and become fairer, other groups are threatened with total exclusion, such those who suffer from a health condition, as Behm does. Such collateral damage cannot be accepted by a society that believes in solidarity. In areas impacting social participation, an oversight authority is therefore required that recognizes algorithmic monopolization at an early stage and ensures diverse systems are present (see Chapter 16).