AI in employment and hiring: A fireside chat with EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been steadily addressing how to identify and mitigate bias in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment, hiring, retention, promotion, performance tracking, and dismissal. In May 2023, EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows joined heads of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission to outline how AI-generated applications can result in the violation of federal non-discrimination laws. The EEOC recently provided guidance to employers on how to use AI, while remaining compliant with prohibitions against race, ethnicity, sex, and disability discrimination under Title VII of Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

On October 18, Nicol Turner Lee from the Brookings Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) hosted a fireside chat with EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows to discuss how the agency is tackling AI as part of its core mission. Turner Lee also shared a new CTI project, the AI Equity Lab, which will develop tools and resources to aid in the design and development of anti-racist, and non-discriminatory AI in areas that include employment, education, health care, and criminal justice. 

Viewers submitted questions for speakers by emailing [email protected] or via Twitter at @BrookingsGov by using #AIinHiring. 

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