An analysis piece (“Employer Takeaways As Agencies Team Up To Regulate AI”) in the April 27th issue of Law360 reported on the newly-announced alliance of four federal agencies (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and U.S. Department of Justice), who have jointly committed to protecting the public from discrimination and other potential fallout from automated systems and artificial intelligence, and the reaction of employers, vendors, and industry experts to this new regulatory alliance.
Victoria A. Lipnic, Esq., a Partner at Resolution Economics, LLC and Former EEOC commissioner and acting chair says, “They’re [the agencies] trying to send a message and I think they felt like, hey, we need to be in this space in a powerful fashion.” Lipnic noted that, in her experience, it’s hard to get even two federal agencies to team up on something, so the fact that four did so here is significant.
Lipnic also noted that the EEOC has signaled that “it thinks [AI tool] vendors can [potentially] be construed as employment agencies,” which would subject the vendors to the laws enforced by the EEOC.
Read the full article here.