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As the battle to regulate A.I. begins, some cities are moving forward with policies that'll place parameters on use cases within the workplace. New York City is one of them.
Some might be surprised to find that the city’s government passed a law as early as 2021 stipulating that employers using A.I.-enhanced tools in hiring and promotion decisions must make candidates aware. Employers must also give candidates the option to request and learn what personal data is collected and are required to hire independent auditors to review their A.I. tools once a year for potential bias. Bias will be determined via an “impact ratio,” calculating the technology's impact on hiring according to race and ethnicity, sex, and other intersectional categories.
The law will go into effect in July, and violations will result in a fine.
Much like the pay transparency bills that New York put into effect late last year, the A.I. law is expected to influence other states to take action. Illinois and Maryland have already enacted laws regulating A.I. in the workplace, and California, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., are in the process of doing the same.
New York City's law has received mixed feedback, with some arguing that enforcing such laws for a rapidly advancing technology is impractical. But public interest advocates fear the rules don’t go far enough to protect workers. “My biggest concern is that this becomes the template nationally when we should be asking much more of our policymakers,” Alexandra Givens, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology, told the New York Times.
Even tech leaders are asking for more oversight. “A.I. needs to be regulated in a way that balances innovation and potential harms,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in the Financial Times this month. “I still believe A.I. is too important not to regulate and too important not to regulate well.”
In a speech last week, Microsoft’s president Brad Smith called for the U.S. to create a regulatory agency to oversee A.I. development.
And as CHRO Daily previously reported, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently warned employers that they would be held responsible for any discrimination in hiring, firing, or promotions borne out of A.I. use.
Amber Burton
amber.burton@fortune.com
@amberbburton
