As employers continue experimenting with new forms of technology in hiring and firing decisions, workers may, at times, find themselves at the mercy of algorithms.
That’s because, experts say, there are currently scant legal protections surrounding the use of artificial intelligence and other new tech tools in making such choices. Oracle’s decision to lay off a likely sizable, though still publicly unknown, portion of its workforce allegedly by algorithm is just the latest iteration of a long-running trend.
Several media outlets reported that the tech giant is laying off thousands of workers, with some putting the figure as high as 30,000. The company itself has not publicly confirmed either the depth or even veracity of the alleged job cuts, though several former employees have taken to Reddit, LinkedIn and other social media platforms to share their accounts of being let go.
One LinkedIn post from a longtime Oracle employee suggested that Oracle used an algorithm to target “mid-level managers,” especially those with “outstanding stock options.” Though definitions vary, algorithms in this context generally describe computer processes based on strict rules.
The former employee later edited the post to pare back the claim and said she did not know for sure it was true, but media outlets had already picked it up.
One article by Toronto-based finance news website Moneywise pointed out a seeming incongruity: Hilary Maxson, Oracle’s newly appointed finance chief, joined the...
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