This week, the Victorian government announced it will act to protect workers from “inappropriate and unfair uses” of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. This will include introducing new laws to ensure AI hiring decisions are “free from bias or discrimination”.

The state government also plans to target “intrusive” workplace surveillance, which will include giving workers a right to know if they are being monitored, and requiring a human to have “final say” in any “significant automated decision made using surveillance data”.

Reactions to this announcement have been mixed. Business groups and some employment lawyers describe the proposal as “unnecessary overreach”, but it is seen as a “smart move” by unions.

As someone who researches how AI systems can discriminate, for me, this is a welcome focus. Eliminating all bias and discrimination from AI systems may not be achievable. But we can do more to protect job candidates from this new form of harm.

Bias and discrimination in AI hiring

There is strong evidence to support the state government’s assertion that AI tools can “systematically disadvantage women and people from diverse backgrounds”.

An analysis in the United States of one of the largest datasets to date – 3 million job applicants who submitted 4 million applications that were screened by algorithms built by the same software vendor........

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