TED Radio Hour How companies use AI to choose who gets hired and fired
35 snips
Oct 3, 2025 In this engaging discussion, investigative journalist Hilke Schellmann, author of The Algorithm, explores the transformative and troubling role of AI in hiring practices. She reveals how biased algorithms, like Amazon's, adversely affect candidates. Hilke shares a cautionary tale about an employee unfairly laid off through a one-way video interview. Additionally, she highlights the pitfalls of workplace monitoring and offers practical tips for applicants to tailor their resumes for AI systems, urging greater transparency in the use of these technologies.
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Hiring AI Can Amplify Historical Bias
- Companies turned to AI hiring tools to handle massive application volumes but those tools can inherit biased patterns from past hires.
- Amazon's resume model penalized mentions of "women" because training data skewed male, showing scale multiplies bias.
Makeup Artist Fired After Silent Algorithmic Score
- Lizzie, a makeup artist, lost her job after a one-way video interview scored her extremely low with no explanation.
- She appealed, found her score was 0–33, sued with colleagues, and reached a settlement without learning why.
One-Way Interviews Can Be Easily Fooled
- Hilke fooled interview AIs by repeating one sentence and speaking German, yet received high suitability scores.
- Those results reveal these tools often can't meaningfully assess qualifications or language content.
