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A startup claims to have finally figured out how to get rid of bias in hiring with brain games and artificial intelligence

Published by Business Insider on Mon, 25 Sep 2017


An AI startup called Pymetrics creates neuroscience-based games that eliminate the first step of the hiring process for corporations.The games surface each applicant's inherent traits, like having a good memory oraversion to risk.Though Pymetrics says its software can help rid bias in hiring, the technology is still new and experimental.Think aboutyour place of employment right now. Your family's background and your identity likely helped you get there.You mighthave been lucky enough to have grown up in a good school district and gone to a university with a robust alumni network thatled to job connections. You might've also hadparents who could pay for a semester abroad or housing during an unpaid internshipthings that look great on a resum.These advantages givepeoplea leg-up in their careers, regardless of individual work ethic or talent. That may be whyalarge body of researchshowsthe hiring process is biased.Atech startup calledPymetrics usesbrain games and artificial intelligence in an attempt torid the hiring process of unconscious biases, including classism,racism, sexism, andageism. CEOFrida Pollitold Business Insider that Pymetrics' algorithms do not account for the name ofa candidate's school, employee referrals, gender, or ethnicity. Instead, theymeasure 70 inherent cognitive and emotional traits,including attention to detail, ability to focus, risk-taking, and memory.In 2013, Pymetrics launched software that automates the first step of therecruiting process: scanning resumes. On September 20, the company announced it had raised $8 million, bringing its total funding to $17 million.In the fall, with a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, Pymetrics will launch a program tomatch disadvantaged young adults, ages 18 to 24, with companies nationwide.How corporations use PymetricsRight now, Pymetricsworks with 40 to 50 companies, including big namesUnilever and Accenture. Most of the companies are large,because the software needs a lot of employee data to generate an accurate algorithm.To create an algorithm, between 100 and 150 of acompany's top performers play a series of neuroscience-based games.The game that measures risk aversion, for instance,gives users three minutes to collect as much "money" as possible using this system: clicking "pump" inflates a balloon by 5 cents; at any point, the user can click "collect money." If the balloon pops, the user receives no money. The user is presented with balloons until the timer runs out.Here's a screenshot:A cautious user who takes a small amount of money from each balloon is neither better nor worse than an adventurous user who takes each balloon to its limit. They just receive different types of scores.After top performers finish all 12 games, the company then creates a custom algorithm that reveals a trait profile for the ideal candidate.Whena candidate applies for a job, they are asked to play the same seriesof games.Recruiters can then see a candidate's resultscompared with benchmarks from the company's top-performing employees.Those who receive scores closest to the ideal trait profile move on to the next round, which is usually an interview."What does the resume tell a company that's really that relevant'"Polli said the goal forPymetrics is to replacethe act of looking at resumes, not human recruiters."In an entry level role, as a freshly graduated college kid, what does the resume tell a company that's really that relevant' I was an English major, and I became a neuroscientist. There's no direct line there," she said.She added that the software reduces the chances ofethnic and gender discrimination, at least in the first round. Research has shown that white men have an advantage in the hiring process, especially for jobs in male-dominated fields.These kinds of industries, includingtech, law,and finance, also have a diversity problem. A2014 analysis fromUSA Today, for example, foundthat black and Hispanic college students are graduating with computer engineering and science degrees at twice the rate they're getting hired.Polli admits that computers are just as likely to have gender andethnic biases as humans, since the latter programs the former."Let's take Fortune 500 CEOs. Less than 5% are women, and it's the same for ethnic representation. There are more guys named John than female [names] in this group. If you were to use that sample to predict who makes a good CEO, the name John would be really predictive," she said. "That's how bias gets introduced. Variables associated with a particular demographic group get picked up by the algorithms. And if you're not actively checking for that, you're going to perpetuate it."To limit that kind of bias, Pymetricsadjusts its algorithm for each company.The startup createsa reference group of 10,000 people that have used Pymetrics.Unlike the new applicants, the companyknows the genders and ethnicities of the reference group. If the team notices, for example, that men are receiving higher scores than women on a given trait, it will de-weight that trait in the software's model.When Unileverbegan a hiring overhaul last year, it usedPymetrics and HireVue (which uses facial recognition to analyze interview questions) for250,000 applicants. UnilevertoldBI it hiredits "most diverse class to date" in North America from July 2016 to June 2017. The company said there was a "significant" increase in non-white hires, though it wouldn't disclose specific statistics. Unileverhired a nearly equal number of men and womenas well.Does it work'As others have noted, there are dangers inrelying too much on data analyticsin hiring. Cathy O'Neill, a mathematician, wrote an entire book on the subject, called "Weapons of Math Destruction." Ifa company's top-performing employees are mostly white, male, and young, basing an algorithm ontheir profile will likely make that algorithmbiased toward candidates who look like the top employees, she wrote in the book.Polli said that's why it's important to continually correct algorithmswhich are designed by humans with biasesto limit that from happening.As Mic notes, this kind of technology is still new and experimental.It's also only used at the first stage of the recruiting process. Even if a candidate makes it to an interview, a recruiter's unconscious bias still could affect their chances of getting the job.Several other startupsin the HR space, likeHireVue,Mya Systems, andTalent Sonar, have similar objectives as Pymetrics, relying on everything from games to chatbots to facial recognition.Polli is optimisticthat thistechnology could give more less-privileged job candidates more of an equal shot."Economics [are]a huge barrier to getting a good job, because you don't have the right school or the right internship. That shouldn't get in the way," she said. "We're trying to bring back the American Dream, in that everyone should have the opportunity togood jobs. It doesn't matter what your race or gender or socioeconomic background. We think that all those factors should become irrelevant."SEE ALSO:I tried the software that uses AI to scan job applicants for companies like Goldman Sachs and Unilever before meeting them ' and it's not as creepy as it soundsJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Watch Apple unveil the iPhone X
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