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At least 40% of businesses have harnessed artificial intelligence within their organisation. Usage is rapidly increasing. So, when applied to HR issues, are we at a momentous crossroads or jumping off a cliff?
Thirty years ago, we consulted our 20 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica which offered 500,000 topics in 40 million words. We took AA roadmaps on holiday and consulted an A to Z to navigate larger towns. It’s fewer than 40 years since mobile phones emerged, not too dissimilar in form and function to a house brick.
Three decades later, we’ve morphed through the internet. Satellite navigation guides our cars. Our personal assistants, Siri and Alexa, answer our questions. Google provides instant responses to everything. And now we’re at another exciting crossroads: the new kid on the block is ChatGPT. A fantastic, free, machine learning tool with plenty of Human Resources applications. It can write your adverts, job descriptions, produce reports, devise punchy slogans – even prepare dismissal letters.
It ‘scrapes’ 300 billion words to provide you with just what you want. And it’s presented in seductively attractive, grammatically competent language. By the way, it’ll also plan your holiday, suggest advantages and disadvantages of different cars, offer concerts and festivals to your musical taste or provide the menu for tonight’s dinner. What’s not to like?
Well, Open AI, the laboratory behind Chat GPT issues a note of caution. They say, “AI systems are becoming part of everyday life. The key is to ensure that these machines are aligned with human intention and values… AI technology comes with tremendous benefits, along with serious risk of misuse.”
HR considerations
So, reverting to HR considerations, can you rely on what you’re offered? ChatGPT itself says, “While we have safeguards in place, the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.”
Chatbots also suffer from what’s called ‘algorithmic bias’. The results they offer effectively rely on a comparison of existing source material. They don’t think; they compare. Source material that was biased remains biased, regardless of how attractively it may be presented.
For example, when I asked ChatGPT to write me a job advert for the androgynous role of ‘stripper’, it politely advised me that my request was inappropriate, could be discriminatory or promote inappropriate behaviour. However with marginal refinement, it readily produced one for ‘exotic dancer’. And it equally happily offered me a gender biased advert and job description for a handyman. Similarly, a credible looking letter set out my ‘immediate’ dismissal and failed to mention my right of appeal.
It’s a real challenge to ensure requests return secure, reliable responses that comply with the law. After all, chatbots may propose actions for you but they don’t offer guidance, advice, or legal compliance. Neither does AI have any regard to data protection considerations. Open AI is exactly that: open. To everyone. If personal data or, indeed, sensitive or company confidential information is inputted, it has the potential to cause a major security breach.
And woe betide if someone else owns the intellectual property rights in something a chatbot offers. For example, I asked it to design a slogan for a new fast-food outlet. It offered me ten snappy options, two of which were immediately recognisable as those of major brands. I’m probably not loving it!
Big players fiercely protect their intellectual property, and you don’t want your company to be on the wrong side of a lawsuit because your employee was trying to cut corners when content writing. You may be vicariously liable for actions your staff take. If you allow them to use products like ChatGPT within their role, you must have very clear policies to regulate usage.
Also, people are at risk when searching for chatbots. Fraudsters and scammers are already tapping into the trend. You may be offered access or, indeed, improvements via sponsored links e.g. Google Ads. You could, inadvertently, download a malicious extension. At the more innocent end of the spectrum, you may pay for something that’s free.
So what do we suggest for using AI in an HR context?
Use it responsibly – never blindly accept what it churns out.
Check and cross check – human intervention and thought is always essential.
Ensure legality – especially equalities and data protection considerations.
Never input personal or confidential data.
Beware of copyright, intellectual property, trademark etc. infringements.
Have very clear policies about staff use – reinforced with effective training.
Ensure you are accessing products like ChatGPT directly.
Most importantly, and however credible that AI draft may look, it’s just a ‘scraped’ comparison. It’s not original thinking. It does not include guidance or advice and it is not formulated to meet your specific needs. Chatbots such as ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Bard basically consume and then reproduce whatever data is inputted.
The philosophy of ‘caveat emptor’ [let the buyer beware] has been a well-trodden legal concept for over 500 years. But it’s never more relevant than now. Our advice is to use chatbots with care and caution.
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