The Silicon Ceiling: Auditing GPT's Race and Gender Biases in Hiring

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Armstrong, Lena, Liu, Abbey, MacNeil, Stephen, Metaxa, Danaë
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Armstrong, Lena
Liu, Abbey
MacNeil, Stephen
Metaxa, Danaë
author_facet Armstrong, Lena
Liu, Abbey
MacNeil, Stephen
Metaxa, Danaë
contents Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly being introduced in workplace settings, with the goals of improving efficiency and fairness. However, concerns have arisen regarding these models' potential to reflect or exacerbate social biases and stereotypes. This study explores the potential impact of LLMs on hiring practices. To do so, we conduct an AI audit of race and gender biases in one commonly-used LLM, OpenAI's GPT-3.5, taking inspiration from the history of traditional offline resume audits. We conduct two studies using names with varied race and gender connotations: resume assessment (Study 1) and resume generation (Study 2). In Study 1, we ask GPT to score resumes with 32 different names (4 names for each combination of the 2 gender and 4 racial groups) and two anonymous options across 10 occupations and 3 evaluation tasks (overall rating, willingness to interview, and hireability). We find that the model reflects some biases based on stereotypes. In Study 2, we prompt GPT to create resumes (10 for each name) for fictitious job candidates. When generating resumes, GPT reveals underlying biases; women's resumes had occupations with less experience, while Asian and Hispanic resumes had immigrant markers, such as non-native English and non-U.S. education and work experiences. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature on LLM biases, particularly in workplace contexts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_04412
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Silicon Ceiling: Auditing GPT's Race and Gender Biases in Hiring
Armstrong, Lena
Liu, Abbey
MacNeil, Stephen
Metaxa, Danaë
Computers and Society
Computation and Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly being introduced in workplace settings, with the goals of improving efficiency and fairness. However, concerns have arisen regarding these models' potential to reflect or exacerbate social biases and stereotypes. This study explores the potential impact of LLMs on hiring practices. To do so, we conduct an AI audit of race and gender biases in one commonly-used LLM, OpenAI's GPT-3.5, taking inspiration from the history of traditional offline resume audits. We conduct two studies using names with varied race and gender connotations: resume assessment (Study 1) and resume generation (Study 2). In Study 1, we ask GPT to score resumes with 32 different names (4 names for each combination of the 2 gender and 4 racial groups) and two anonymous options across 10 occupations and 3 evaluation tasks (overall rating, willingness to interview, and hireability). We find that the model reflects some biases based on stereotypes. In Study 2, we prompt GPT to create resumes (10 for each name) for fictitious job candidates. When generating resumes, GPT reveals underlying biases; women's resumes had occupations with less experience, while Asian and Hispanic resumes had immigrant markers, such as non-native English and non-U.S. education and work experiences. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature on LLM biases, particularly in workplace contexts.
title The Silicon Ceiling: Auditing GPT's Race and Gender Biases in Hiring
topic Computers and Society
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04412