More than a dozen leading companies, including Humana, Walmart and CVS, have all joined the Data & Trust Alliance's first initiative, which aims to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence algorithms used in human resources.
The alliance's first initiative, "Algorithmic Safety: Mitigating Bias in Workforce Decisions," aims to help companies evaluate the ability of a vendor to detect and combat bias in algorithms involved in hiring, according to a Dec. 8 press release.
To do so, the alliance has produced an anti-bias toolkit including 55 questions across 13 categories that can be adapted by participating companies to evaluate human resources vendors. The criteria was designed by member company experts in hiring, AI, information technology, and diversity, equity and inclusion and then tested by human resource experts and more than 200 subject matter experts.
"As we accelerate our digital transformation, we also have to ensure that the way we are using data and AI is consistent with our values," said Laurie Havanec, chief people officer of CVS Health.
Members of this initiative include American Express, CVS Health, Deloitte, Nike, General Motors, Humana, IBM and Walmart, among others. Collectively, the companies adopting the safeguards employ more than 3.5 million people.