[HN Gopher] A lawsuit says Workday's AI shut out applicants over 40
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       A lawsuit says Workday's AI shut out applicants over 40
        
       Author : SunshineTheCat
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2026-01-09 22:01 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (san.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (san.com)
        
       | Terr_ wrote:
       | > He added that Workday's AI recruiting tools are not trained to
       | use or identify protected characteristics like race, age or
       | disability.
       | 
       | Hmm, perhaps, but I think we should be clear on the distinctions
       | between:
       | 
       | 1. "We didn't _try_ to cause X. "
       | 
       | 2. "There is no X happening."
       | 
       | 3. "We don't look to see if X happens."
       | 
       | 4. "If X happens we don't try to _stop_ it. "
       | 
       | As someone involved in HR-tech-stuff, my default stance towards
       | complex "AI" systems is that they all harbor biases, and the main
       | difference is which ones have been discovered yet.
        
       | philipodonnell wrote:
       | How do they prove this? It sounds like the plaintiffs basically
       | claimed they were rejected a bunch of times and since the resume
       | had recognizable indicators of protected classes they must have
       | been discriminated against?
       | 
       | Don't get me wrong, I do this work, and Workdays statement of "we
       | don't use protected classes" instead of "we test our models to
       | prove they are unbiased when given recognizable indicators of
       | protected classes" is pretty telling. Because it's hard and if
       | you solved it you would be proud. If you don't control for it it
       | WILL discriminate. See Amazon's experiment a decade ago.
       | 
       | I'm just really curious how all this plays out in front of a
       | judge.
        
       | silisili wrote:
       | I'm not siding with Workday, but this feels like a stretch.
       | 
       | The market is rough. Everyone I know who have been looking have
       | had the same experience - hundreds of applications, immediate
       | rejections, etc. And most aren't black applicants over 40 with
       | anxiety.
       | 
       | Nonetheless it'll be fun to see what discovery finds, if it ever
       | gets that far. But I have a feeling they'll just pay a few bucks
       | to make it go away as a nuisance suit.
        
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       (page generated 2026-01-09 23:01 UTC)