Flawed NYC AI Hiring Bill is a Cautionary Tale
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This week, the New York City Council also took action, but unfortunately a once-promising bill to require employers to audit their automated employment decision tools was watered down at the last minute behind closed doors. CDT’s analysis of the bill explains how the new law — the first of its kind in the country — risks enshrining weak standards that fail to hold companies accountable. Most damagingly, the new law requires companies to audit their AI hiring tools only for bias on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender — ignoring the high risk of discrimination against disabled, older, or LGBTQ+ workers, among other marginalized groups. This needless decision to prioritize some forms of discrimination over others is a toxic step that CDT and a coalition of disability and civil rights groups directly warned the New York City Council about for months.
The bill uses vague language to describe what counts as an “independent bias audit,” and last-minute changes to the bill removed rulemaking and enforcement provisions that could have helped to give the law real teeth. As our CEO, Alexandra Givens, said in an interview with the Associated Press, this loose standard gives “AI vendors a ‘fig leaf’ for building risky products with the city’s imprimatur.”
Now that the bill is about to become law, other jurisdictions might view it as a potential model for regulating HR technologies. That would be a serious mistake. Instead, policymakers should work to ensure that any future legislation does not suffer from the same serious flaws, thoroughly consult with impacted stakeholders, and focus on mitigating the risks of discrimination these tools pose.
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In Case You Missed It
- CDT is launching a new research project to help fill the gap in knowledge about the scale and nature of gendered disinformation aimed at women from racial, ethnic, religious or other minority groups who are engaged in politics. Focusing on the November 2020 elections, we aim to provide insights on how to best approach the social and technical problems associated with gendered disinformation targeted toward women of color political candidates.
- CDT filed an amicus brief in NetChoice v. Attorney General, State of Florida to urge the 11th Circuit to affirm a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of Florida’s social media law, S.B. 7072. The amicus brief argues that content moderation requires online intermediaries to make decisions about whether to host particular content and how to arrange and display it, and that these editorial judgments are protected by the First Amendment. We also explain how intermediaries develop and enforce their content policies to control and shape their services’ environments, and express their own values and aspirations for their services.
- In early November, CDT Director of Policy Samir Jain testified before the House Committee on Financial Services' Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. Samir made observations about the cyber threat environment, highlighted three challenges we face in addressing these threats — particularly in the financial services sector — and discussed several potential areas in which we can and should make progress to better protect consumers and their data, including passage of a comprehensive federal privacy law.
- CDT is proud that the White House has nominated Sharon Bradford Franklin, Co-Director of Our Security & Surveillance Project, as Chair of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), where she formerly served as Executive Director. Other members of the CDT community have also been nominated to important roles: Alan Davidson, former CDT Board Member and Associate Director, was selected to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Alvaro Bedoya, a former member of CDT’s Advisory Council, was nominated to serve as a Commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission.
- CDT was joined by the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund in comments to inform an upcoming report on AI and disability rights by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Our comments discuss the impact of AI-based decision-making on people with disabilities across healthcare and benefits determinations, the criminal legal systems, employment, education, and the provision of goods and services. These decision-making systems may violate the protections of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, especially for disabled people who are multiply marginalized — but if AI is to help build a better future, it must be designed to expand access to opportunities and actively benefit the people it currently harms most.
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CDT in the Press
Matt Scherer, CDT’s Senior Policy Counsel for Worker Privacy, talked with the Los Angeles Times about invasive employee monitoring: “There’s no easy way for employees to find out if their employer is monitoring them… The general rule is that while you’re on the clock in the workplace, the employer has pretty broad discretion to establish workplace rules and regulations.”
Elizabeth Laird, Director of CDT’s Equity in Civic Technology Project, spoke with K-12 Dive about our recent report on parent, teacher, and student views toward student privacy, security, data use, and equity issues: “You don’t want to engage them after you’ve already made a decision. That’s not engagement.”
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CDT "in Person"- Join CDT on December 14-16, from 12-2 pm Eastern each day, for the fifth annual Future of Speech Online event: “Making Transparency Meaningful.” Along with our special guests, we will explore what “transparency” actually means, what kinds of information people actually want, and what problems will it help us solve. RSVP or learn more about the event here.
- CDT’s Emma Llansó and Dhanaraj Thakur joined with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Internet Observatory in hosting a webinar, which focused on how to enable meaningful user choice and control around end-to-end encrypted communications in ways that help address unwanted or abusive content. A recording of the conversation is available here.
- Emma also spoke at the 2021 Paris Peace Forum about why multistakeholder initiatives are important to protecting human rights while tackling difficult challenges in our online ecosystem. Her remarks are available here.
- Last month, CDT released two complementary reports: an interview-based study that examines local education agencies’ use of monitoring software on school-issued devices, and a set of survey research on teacher, parent, and student experiences and attitudes about this software. On the latest episode of Tech Talk, host Jamal Magby and Francella Ochillo, Executive Director for Next Century Cities, discuss the reports’ findings and the related challenges education practitioners experience when working to address the homework gap.
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Partner Spotlight
CDT is proud to partner with the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law to inform technology and disability rights policy both in the U.S. and in the EU. Most recently through comments to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and through outreach to the EEOC, Department of Labor, and other key federal agencies about the use of AI in hiring and the workplace, we are working towards ensuring that AI is designed to expand access to opportunities and actively benefit the people it currently harms most.
The Bazelon Center advocates for the civil rights, full inclusion, and equality of adults and children with mental disabilities. You can learn more about their work here.
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Staff Spotlight
Elizabeth Remy, Development Manager, Individual Giving & Stewardship
How long have you been working in digital rights? I’ve had the good fortune to be with CDT for the past two and a half years, and have learned a lot in that short time.
What is your proudest moment while at CDT? This year’s Tech Prom! In a year of uncertainty, I was so happy we were able to gather our community together for a night of celebration, reflection, and just plain old fun.
What is the best book you've read recently? Sally Mann’s memoir Hold Still has a very special place in my heart - learning the history and inspiration behind one of my favorite photographers was amazing, and her writing is haunting.
Cats or dogs? I am definitely a dog person (my two would be extremely upset if I said otherwise), but all of my friends have cats, so I’m slowly coming around to them as well.
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