On June 30^th, 2023 at 11.00 am Julia Stoyanovich  of New York University, will hold a seminar on "Calling Bullshit on Personality Prediction in Hiring: Results of an Audit" in Aula Magna of Rettorato, Politecnico di Milano.

The seminar will be introduced by Proff. Stefano Ceri and Viola Schiaffonati of DEIB-Politecnico di Milano.

Discussant: Prof. Stefano Canali of DEIB-Politecnico di Milano.

In this talk, I will discuss the wide-spread use of AI systems in hiring, noting where these systems can be helpful and where they raise discrimination and validity concerns. The bulk of my talk will focus on the results of a recent audit of the validity of two commercial systems -- Humantic AI and Crystal -- that claim to construct personality profiles of job seekers based on their resumes and social media feeds. I will present our audit methodology and our findings, namely, that both systems show instability on key facets of measurement and therefore cannot be considered valid testing instruments for pre-hire assessment. I will conclude with a discussion of the recent legal and regulatory developments in the US, aimed at reigning in the unaccountable use of AI systems in hiring, and will reflect on what it would take to make the use of AI safe, fair, and socially sustainable in this critical domain.

Julia Stoyanovich is Institute Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Associate Professor of Data Science, and Director of the Center for Responsible AI at New York University. Her goal is to make “Responsible AI” synonymous with “AI”. She works towards this goal by engaging in academic research, education and technology regulation, and by speaking about the benefits and harms of AI to practitioners and members of the public. Julia’s research interests include AI ethics and legal compliance, data management and AI systems, and computational social choice. She has co-authored over 100 academic publications, and has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Le Monde. Julia has been teaching courses on responsible data science and AI to students, practitioners and the general public. She is a co-author of the “Data, Responsibly” and “We are AI” comic book series. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Columbia University, and a B.S. in Computer Science and in Mathematics & Statistics from UMass Amherst. Julia’s work has been generously supported by the US National Science Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, JP Morgan Chase, and Meta Responsible AI, among others.

Event organized by CINI laboratory “Information & Society” and META, interdisciplinary network for “Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology”, Politecnico di Milano.