OpenAI's GPT Is a Recruiter's Dream Tool. Tests Show There's Racial Bias

> When asked to rank those resumes 1,000 times, GPT 3.5 — the most broadly-used version of the model — favored names from some demographics more often than others, to an extent that would fail benchmarks used to assess job discrimination against protected groups. While this test is a simplified version of a typical HR workflow, it isolated names as a source of bias in GPT that could affect hiring decisions. The interviews and experiment show that using generative AI for recruiting and hiring poses a serious risk for automated discrimination at scale.

> The analysis also found that GPT’s gender and racial preferences differed depending on the particular job that a candidate was evaluated for. GPT does not consistently disfavor any one group, but will pick winners and losers depending on the context. For example, GPT seldom ranked names associated with men as the top candidate for HR and retail positions, two professions historically dominated by women. GPT was nearly twice as likely to rank names distinct to Hispanic women as the top candidate for an HR role compared to each set of resumes with names distinct to men. Bloomberg also found clear preferences when running tests with the less-widely used GPT-4 — OpenAI’s newer model that the company has promoted as less biased.