Ethics and trust in AI recruiting solutions

💡 Summary in 3 lines

- Many organizations are turning to AI recruiting solutions to improve interview fairness.

- Some question the logic and reliability of AI assessment results

- Need to build a sophisticated recruitment process based on AI's characteristics and limitations

Genesis Lab, in collaboration with KISDI (Korea Information and Communication Policy Institute), developed the 'AI Recruitment Solution Ethics Checklist' in 2023. This collaborative effort was recognized with the Minister of Science and ICT Award for 'AI Reliability and Quality'. The checklist, a product of a government-led AI Reliability Roundtable, received GS certification level 1. This is not just about ViewerHR claiming superiority, but about a collective effort to ensure AI ethics, where evidence is more powerful when it is certified by trusted others.

AI technology and business ethics

Since the inception of ViewinterHR, Genesis Lab has been unwavering in its commitment to 'advance AI technology' and 'enhance AI ethics'. This commitment is not just in words, but is backed by 67 patents that set us apart from other companies. Our dedication to 'AI ethics (reliability)' is evident in the numerous certifications and awards we have received. It is this sincerity towards AI that led KISDI to approach us for the co-development of the AI Recruitment Solution Ethics Standard in 2024.

What difference do we want to emphasize between ViewerHR and other AI recruitment solutions? Is it a technological edge or an ethical code? There are many differentiators, but we'd like to discuss ethics in this article.

When discussing ethical values in a for-profit company, we should focus on shared values rather than organizational profits. However, ethics and business have long been inseparable. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), now a household word, is part of this movement. The National Human Rights Commission defines ethical management as follows. "Ethical management is a management activity in which an organization sets the values it pursues and establishes principles for implementing them, which are followed by the organization's employees so that a company fulfils not only its economic and legal responsibilities but also its ethical responsibilities."

Genesis Lab's first core value is "We Create AI Agents". Therefore, when Genesis Labs practices ethical management, corporate interests (AI development) conflict with ethical norms, and moral value standards (AI ethics) are considered first.

AI ethics and trustworthiness

Artificial intelligence (AI) benefits many fields, including recruitment, healthcare, education, law, security, transportation, and more. However, beneath the technology's benefits, there are concerns that AI may violate human rights and freedoms, exacerbate social inequality and discrimination, or undermine human responsibility and creativity. This is where the proposal comes in: AI should be designed and operated to respect and protect human dignity and the common good.

AI ethics can be defined as a set of guidelines for the moral and responsible use of AI. To meet these standards, we need to consider AI's social impact and ensure that AI systems are developed, deployed, and used in a way consistent with ethical and human values. In other words, AI ethics is about enabling 'AI you can trust'. That's why we spend so much time and effort ensuring AI trustworthiness.

By "trust," we mean predictability. It is the expectation of favour based on the belief of how the other party will behave. AI trustworthiness means an AI system is ⓐ predictable, ⓑ verifiable, ⓑ safe and robust, ⓓ fair and transparent, and ⓔ amenable to human oversight and intervention.

Government/institutional moves toward AI ethics compliance

On December 23, 2020, the Presidential Committee on the 4th Industrial Revolution deliberated and approved the "Ethical Standards for Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Human Center" prepared by the Ministry of Science and ICT and KISDI.

In February 2022, the government released the "Self-Checklist for Implementing the Ethical Standards for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 2022". However, it has been pointed out that the self-checklist released now has limitations in the industrial field, and the need for multifaceted improvements has emerged. Since the self-checklist presented general-purpose questions that do not specify the field of study or industry sector, it was recommended that the utilizing entity select and flexibly reorganize the questions according to the purpose characteristics.

In March 2022, the self-checklist was piloted in the field through collaboration with companies. In addition to developing self-checklists specific to each field of AI, we discovered improvements to existing self-checklists. On April 23, the AI Ethical Standards Self-Checklist for Chatbot, Writing, and Video was developed—interest in A. I ethics in recruitment has increased. At that time, 45% of the world's companies were already utilizing AI for recruitment and human resources, and domestic companies were also introducing AI recruitment, with government agencies, public companies, and large companies taking the lead.

At this time, KISDI and Genesis Labs began jointly collaborating to develop an AI ethics checklist for recruitment solutions.

KISDI-Genesis Labs Collaboration Process

The first meeting between Genesis Labs and KISDI took place on April 23. On this day, the following timeline was roughly determined.

[1. Confirmation of the name of the Ethics Checklist (~May) ]

The name of the ethics checklist was finalized as "Genesis Lab AI Recruitment Solution Ethics Checklist". The company name, product name, and the fact that it is an ethics checklist were emphasized to convey a precise meaning.

[2. Organization, outline, and review of checklist items (~June)]

It took a lot of time to review the checklist. The existing 10 AI ethical standards were generalized and did not fit the field of recruitment AI, so we consulted with internal experts and KISDI officials many times to finalize them.

[ 3. Developing a draft of the GenesLab (~July) ]

Through step 2, we finally completed the draft of the Genesis Lab Ethics Checklist and referenced the ethics checklists of AI companies in other industries.

[ 4. Review by External Experts (~August) ]

More than 20 external experts from various fields, such as law, engineering, humanities, and industry, provided discussions and advisory opinions.

[ 5. Forum Presentation (~October) ]

As the ethics checklist was finalized considering expert advice, the progress and efforts to secure credibility were presented and discussed at the 2nd AI Ethics Policy Forum.

[ 6. Finalization (~December) ]

Through this process, the final " Genesis Lab AI Recruitment Solution Ethics Checklist" was completed, and based on this, KISDI will develop and distribute an ethics checklist in the field of recruitment AI in 24.

Genesis Lab is making significant efforts to harmonize AI technology and ethics. This will help us to make a positive impact on our society and the international community. When it comes to using the term AI, there is no standard for how sophisticated a technology needs to be to be called AI. From a consumer's point of view, even if a product has AI in its name without any AI technology applied, it is inevitable to believe that it has AI technology. Therefore, there is still a long way to go before we have a standard for how ethical AI technology should be.

However, automated decisions made by AI are already influencing important human choices. This year's revision of the Personal Data Protection Act to include "automated decisions" is one such change. Genesis Labs will always be at the table when discussing the ethics of AI technology. We should be able to reap the benefits of technological advances while minimizing the risks.

This is a path that no one has travelled before. Genesis Labs will continue to work to ensure that the application of AI in recruitment will be more ethical in the future.

Write Yuk Geunsik (Head of HR Business, Genesis Labs)

Review & Edit Leo Choi (Marketing, Genesis Labs)