ETHICS AND SOCIETAL IMPACT

A NOTE ON FAIRNESS IN HIRING TOOLS Our lab reviews fictional resumes, but real resume tools affect real livelihoods. Such systems can reflect unfair patterns, for example by favoring certain wording or backgrounds that do not actually predict success. A responsible team tests for this, keeps a human in the decision, tells applicants how the tool is used, and never lets an automatic score be the only reason a person is rejected. WHO IS AFFECTED BY AN AGENT An agent affects more people than the ones who type into it. There are the direct users, who read its answers and rely on them. There are the people it acts on, such as job applicants whose resumes are scored, or customers whose accounts are changed. There are the workers whose tasks the agent takes over or changes. And there are the people who maintain, pay for, and answer for the system. A helpful habit is to list these groups before you build, and to ask of each group three plain questions. What could go right for them, what could go wrong for them, and would they be able to notice and object? The third question matters most, because harm that people cannot notice cannot be corrected.