Choose Your Words Carefully

It seems that artificial intelligence applications are being developed to do things like spot bias based on how we use language. Not blatant sexist or racially discriminatory language. This is much more subtle, and tied more to our unconscious choice of words. Words that have positive and negative connotations, or that may appeal more to one gender. For instance, one study has found that the use of the term “World Class” in a job posting will appeal much more to male applicants than female applicants, where as “Premium”  is appealing across genders.

So this may be a great tool for each of us to recognize and correct our unconscious biases. On the other hand, the day is coming when a software program will testify against you in a discrimination suit because the seemingly neutral words in your job posting are more likely to attract one gender over another.