Artificial intelligence is being used, on a massive scale, to decide who gets hired, fired and promoted. Through whistleblower exclusives, leaked internal documents and astonishing real-world practices, journalist Hilke Schellmann reveals the secret rise of AI in the world of work. Testing them herself, she discovers that many algorithms making these high-stakes calculations do more harm than good, and traces their origins to troubling pseudoscientific ideas about people's 'true' essence.
Interviewing experts, developers and ordinary workers,The Algorithm offers fascinating and alarming truths. From software analysing interviewees' facial expressions and tone of voice, to video games assessing their performance, to 'personality profiles' built from candidates' social media, almost all major employers use AI in recruitment. Programmes track their staff's activity, group dynamics and physical health, identifying who is productive, a bully, worth long-term investment, or likely to quit. But can we trust them?
In a world of severe job insecurity, workplace algorithms are on the brink of dominating or even threatening us if we don't fight back.
About the Author :
Hilke Schellmannis an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism professor at New York University. She has reported for HBO, NPR,The New York Times, The GuardianandThe Wall Street Journal, where her team investigated how AI is changing our lives. Her PBS documentary,Outlawed in Pakistan, won an Emmy.
Review :
‘The best available case study [of] … the use of artificial intelligence by human resource departments.'
'A cautionary tale for anyone who thought AI would take human bias out of hiring — and an essential handbook for job hunters.'
‘[Schellmann] walks the reader through the devastating consequences of current trends and explains why there’s no easy path forward… . The Algorithm is a wake-up call.’
'Schellmann pulls the curtain back on the AI-driven "HR tech" revolution taking over hiring and managing employees, and finds tools that are arbitrary, ineffective, discriminatory and likely unlawful. Reads like a dozen scandals waiting to erupt.'
'In The Algorithm, Hilke Schellmann has done the impossible: she has rendered the baffling 'Wild West' of AI immensely readable and approachable. Schellmann gives us the dark and hidden history of tech innovation and the marketplace through the stories of those whose lives have been smashed by its glitches.'
'A disturbing investigation into use of AI systems in hiring, firing, and employee surveillance. As Schellmann demonstrates, AI has moved into crucial areas of our lives, but the process has been so fast and silent that its influence is almost invisible. She argues that HR managers should be required to understand how their algorithms work, and there must be greater human input to personnel decisions. This eye-opening book makes it hard to disagree.'
‘Focuses on how the technology is already deployed in personnel decisions in the workplace — with alarming results.’
‘[An] enjoyable and disturbing read.’
'The author correctly identifies one major source of the problem as the monetary pressure involved in building AI tools.'
'One of the most important topics of our time--one that impacts all of us more than we realise. The book takes a balanced approach to illuminating the current state of AI in the workplace. It's not just about incredible benefits or doomsday scenarios, but a real look into the current state of these tools, the incentive systems driving their proliferation, the mixed results they provide, and how we might ensure better outcomes. Highly recommended.'
'A fresh, important perspective on how AI is changing many critical workplace decisions in organizations. Schellmann's research is thorough and clever, and exposes the many of problems that AI and its proponents have already created for companies and employees.'
'Hilke Schellmann was one of the first journalists to understand the dangers of AI passing judgement on workers, and The Algorithm is an absolutely vital book about the risks and harms of the systems already operating — on us — today.'
