AI is Starting to Pick Who Gets Laid Off
fliptop writes:
As layoffs ravage the tech industry, algorithms once used to help hire could now be deciding who gets cut:
Days after mass layoffs trimmed 12,000 jobs at Google, hundreds of former employees flocked to an online chatroom to commiserate about the seemingly erratic way they had suddenly been made redundant.
They swapped theories on how management had decided who got cut. Could a "mindless algorithm carefully designed not to violate any laws" have chosen who got the ax, one person wondered in a Discord post The Washington Post could not independently verify.
Google says there was "no algorithm involved" in its job-cut decisions. But former employees are not wrong to wonder, as a fleet of artificial intelligence tools become ingrained in office life. Human resources managers use machine learning software to analyze millions of employment-related data points, churning out recommendations of whom to interview, hire, promote or help retain.
[...] A January survey of 300 human resources leaders at U.S. companies revealed that 98 percent of them say software and algorithms will help them make layoff decisions this year. And as companies lay off large swaths of people - with cuts creeping into the five digits - it's hard for humans to execute alone.
[...] These same tools can help in layoffs. "They suddenly are just being used differently," [Harvard Business School professor Joseph] Fuller added, "because that's the place where people have ... a real ... inventory of skills."
Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
Related:
- Yahoo to Lay Off 20% of Staff by Year-End, Beginning This Week
- Open Source Teams at Google Hit Hard by Layoffs: Was It the Algorithm?
- Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts
- Amazon Will Reportedly Lay Off 10,000 Employees
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