Gerald Hathaway Discusses Disability Discrimination and AI Tools With Business Insurance

In an article titled “Regulators Target Disability Bias Risks in AI Tools,” Business Insurance turned to labor and employment partner and member of the firm’s AI-X team Gerald Hathaway about employers using artificial intelligence (AI) software to screen job applicants and employees as recent guidance from federal agencies warns about potential disability discrimination pitfalls.

The publication noted common ways employers that use AI may discriminate against those with disabilities, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), including not providing a “reasonable” accommodation, using an algorithmic decision-making tool to screen out individuals with disabilities and using tools that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act’s restrictions on disability-related inquiries and medical exams.

“You shouldn’t use AI to the exclusion of other methods of selecting people because AI will have a tendency to decide negatively against those with disabilities, just by the nature of it, unless it’s highly sophisticated,” Hathaway said.