IT Blog

Last week, the algorithmic hiring company HireVue seemed to declare that it had stopped using facial analysis, which came as a welcome surprise to critics of the problematic artificial intelligence application. But when you look more closely, the announcement contains as much obfuscation as it does progress.

For years, HireVue’s fully autonomous software, which uses AI to analyze facial features and movements during job interviews, has raised concerns and criticisms for both its grandiose claims and the high likelihood of biased outcomes. Previously, the company had shrugged off those concerns, as facial and audio analysis was a central aspect of its sales pitch—even though its methods were based on the dubious idea that a person’s facial expressions or tone of voice can reveal whether they’d be good at a particular job. So it was especially shocking that when announcing it would stop using facial analysis, HireVue also cited an independent…