EEOC Releases Testimony from Public Hearing on Use of AI by Employers

Written By Digital Content Editor Thomas Ahearn

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – has released written testimony from a public hearing that examined the use of automated systems such as artificial intelligence (AI) by employers in employment decisions.

During the hearing on January 31, 2023 – “Navigating Employment Discrimination in AI and Automated Systems: A New Civil Rights Frontier” – the EEOC heard from witnesses ranging from computer scientists, civil rights advocates, legal experts, industrial-organizational psychologists, and employer representatives.

Panel 1

• Suresh Venkatasubramanian – Deputy Director, Data Science Initiative and Professor of Computer Science, Brown University
  • Written Testimony
• Pauline Kim – Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis
  • Written Testimony
• Jordan Crenshaw – Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  • Written Testimony
• ReNika Moore – American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
  • Written Testimony

Panel 2

• Manish Raghavan – Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Written Testimony
• Nancy T. Tippins, Ph.D. – Principal, The Nancy T. Tippins Group, LLC
  • Written Testimony
• Gary D. Friedman – Senior Partner Employment Litigation Practice Group, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
  • Written Testimony
• Adam Klein – Managing Partner, Outten & Golden LLP
  • Written Testimony

Panel 3

• Matthew Scherer – Senior Policy Counsel for Workers’ Rights and Technology, Center for Democracy & Technology
  • Written Testimony
• Heather Tinsley-Fix – Senior Advisor, Employer Engagement, AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) 
  
  • Written Testimony
• Ifeoma Ajunwa – Associate Professor of Law University of North Carolina School of Law
  • Written Testimony
• Alex C. Engler – Fellow, Brookings Institution and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University
  • Written Testimony

The public hearing continues the work of the EEOC’s AI and Algorithmic Fairness Initiative, an agency-wide initiative to ensure that the use of software, including AI and other emerging technologies used in hiring and other employment decisions, comply with the federal civil rights laws that the EEOC enforces.

The EEOC’s “Draft Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP)” for 2023-2027 also focuses on “screening tools or requirements that disproportionately impact workers based on their protected status, including those facilitated by artificial intelligence or other automated systems, pre-employment tests, and background checks.”

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