Seminar: giving your opinion

Tutor: So, what do people think? Should companies be using AI to screen CVs? Anyone?

You: I can start, if that's okay. Personally, I think it can be useful, but only up to a point.

Tutor: Go on. What do you mean by 'up to a point'?

You: Well, for really large companies that get thousands of applications, it makes sense to use it for the first round. Nobody can read ten thousand CVs properly.

You: But I'd say the final decision should always be made by a human. The reading this week showed quite clearly that these systems can reproduce bias from the training data.

Tutor: Good. Can you think of an example?

You: Yeah, so in my previous job we tested a tool like this, and it kept ranking candidates lower if they'd had a career break. Which, you know, mostly affected women.

Sophie: That's a really interesting point. Did you stop using it?

You: We did, in the end. So I suppose my view is that it's a tool, not a decision-maker.

Tutor: Nice, that's a clear position. Does anyone want to respond to that?

Ben: I kind of agree, but isn't human judgement biased as well?

You: That's true, it definitely is. I guess the difference is that with a human, you can at least ask them to explain their reasoning.