A new study by Pew Research Center has found that a majority of Americans are opposed to the use of AI in decision-making processes such as hiring, firing, and promoting workers.
Specifically, 71% of Americans are against the use of AI in making final hiring decisions, while a majority also oppose AI analysis being used to make firing decisions. While 47% of respondents believe that AI would do better than humans at evaluating all job applicants in the same way, only 15% believe that AI would be worse than humans in doing that.
When it comes to bias in performance evaluations, the report said more Americans believe that greater use of AI by employers would make things better rather than worse in the hiring and worker-evaluation process. However, while larger shares of Americans believe that AI use in workplaces will significantly affect workers in general, far fewer believe that the use of AI in those places will have a major impact on them personally.
The study also found that 70% of women say they would not apply for a job with an employer that used AI in hiring decisions, compared with 61% of men. Those opposed to AI in hiring express concerns that the use of AI systems would remove the “personal touch” from the hiring process. However, some respondents believe that AI systems would evaluate job applicant skills more thoroughly and accurately than humans, that such systems would be more fair and objective, and that AI programs might save time in the hiring process.
