meanwhile there could be a future where artificial intelligence machines are used more widely in disaster recovery but a new survey finds the public is generally skeptical about the use of AI according to a Monmouth University poll out today despite more awareness of AI developments 35 percent of respondents say they've heard a lot about it compared to just 12 percent about a decade ago there's more concern about its uses and impact on our society 41 percent of those surveyed said they believe artificial intelligence will cause more harm than good in the future and about three-quarters of the public believe the machines will hurt jobs and the economy some members of the state legislature appear to feel the same way a new bill would regulate use of AI in the hiring process Advocates worry the software could cause biases and discrimination when looking for workers Ted Goldberg reports job hunting can be hard enough on its own it can be even harder for applicants who could be discriminated against by AI hiring programs just because it's code just because it's a robot just because it's AI doesn't mean it's neutral doesn't mean it mean it's free of bias because at the end of the day it's trying to encapsulate very difficult decisions about what it means to be qualified what it means to deserve something Dylan reeseman works for the ACLU of New Jersey which is sounding the alarm about algorithms that might be discriminating against people during the interview and hiring process if you accept that there is bias which there is in our existing labor pool and who works at different companies whether it be people of certain races people who went to the right schools people who have the right hobbies and fit in with the existing Workforce if you're just trying to replicate that Workforce and say that's who's qualified for this job then that becomes replicated in that hiring tool a new bill would require companies to tell job applicants if AI was used to evaluate their application and it would require hiring software to undergo a bias audit to filter out any patterns of discrimination the bills in between committees right now and assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer is a primary sponsor a company that you know decided that their algorithm should be based on the CVS of their current employees but then that algorithm you know basically only pushed forward men Jefferson says technology isn't inherently racist but different types of code can adversely affect people in a way that would otherwise be illegal discrimination that technology for you to automatically the faucet to start and you can wash your hands and then it was shown that it was harder for people of color to get those things to work because you know those algorithms have been you know built mostly um around I guess white uh consumers companies would be subject to a 500 fine if they violate parts of this bill Jaffer says this is an unregulated space and what people need are more information and more transparency having some sort of guideline set in place hopefully so that we do have audits for equity on these different technologies that are used also transparency for the public so that they will know when they're applying like okay this is being used we totally understand the intent and wanting to make sure that we have information about these tools and make sure that you know they're not being used in a discriminatory fashion Alexis Bailey works for the New Jersey business and industry Association she says assemblywoman Jaffer has been receptive to their suggestions for amendments including a potential simplification of the bias audit we've asked for that to be a summary of the report so that it's easily digestible for third-party companies and also protects the intellectual property of the AI Tool company we need to make sure that those companies have the information they need to use tools that don't ex that don't uh aren't biased against their job candidates Jaffer has heard concerns that it's too soon to implement the law like this but she says it would be worse to allow people to potentially be discriminated against while job hunting sometimes it's best to at least put some parameters in place and to then tweak them than to just leave something you know as crucial as employment up to what we'll find out later a similar bill was introduced in a state senate committee last March but it went no further for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]