Bias in machine learning can be a problem even for companies with plenty of experience with Artificial Intelligence, like Amazon.
According to a new report, the e-commerce giant scrapped an internal project that was trying to use AI to vet job applications after the software consistently downgraded female candidates.
Because AI systems learn to make decisions by looking at historical data they often perpetuate existing biases.
In this case, that bias was the male-dominated working environment of the tech world.
According to Reuters, Amazon’s program penalized applicants who attended all-women’s colleges, as well as any resumes that contained the word “women’s” (as might appear in the phrase “women’s basketball team”).
The team behind the project reportedly intended to speed up the hiring process. “They literally wanted it to be an engine where I’m going to give you 100 CVs, it will spit out the top five, and we’ll hire those,” an unnamed source familiar with the work was quoted.
When the company realised the software was not producing gender-neutral results it was tweaked to remove this bias.
However, those involved could not be sure other biases had not crept into the program, and as a result, it was scrapped entirely last year.
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