'Even if you establish that a particular system would produce discriminatory outcomes left and right, you have no way of sharing that information with other employees’
How can people laid off dueto decisions by AI prove in court that they actually were laid off with the technology playing a big part in the decision? That's the challenge that some Meta workers are dealing with right now, and one that HR professionals overseeing AI-assisted performance tracking or layoff decisions should watch closely.
In a recent case, a group of former Meta employees allege the company relied on AI tools, including a workplace assistant called "Metamate" and a productivity score built from keystrokes, screen activity, emails and browser history, to help select workers for layoffs. The plaintiffs say the scoring disadvantaged staff who had taken medical or family leave or who have disabilities.
Meta has told the court that humans made every decision involved in the roughly 8,000 layoffs announced earlier this year and denies that AI usage factored into who was let go, according to Reuters.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick last week declined to block the terminations of the 26 plaintiffs, saying he was bound to accept Meta's account because the workers could not produce evidence to counter it.
Orrick wrote that employees challenging AI-driven decisions "were not in the rooms where it happened," Reuters reported. A hearing on a longer-lasting preliminary injunction,...
The UAE AI Office has issued a statement debunking social media claims that a government website is fraudulent and confirming that it is an authentic website belonging to an official government en...