The U.S. State Department in Washington plans to revolutionize its personnel work by using artificial intelligence when making decisions on annual promotions and staffing changes.
This is evidenced by a working document that has recently been circulated among employees. In the future, according to the same document, it is planned to create an AI-based chatbot StateChat, developed using Palantir and Microsoft technologies.
The department, with employees in almost 80,000 places in the world, hopes with his help to make its work more objective and more efficient. StateChat should play a key role when forming certification commissions for diplomatic employees.
According to the project, the system will analyze references about their degree and record, after receiving the most honest recommendations possible, to choose the candidates best suited to technology.
The selected employees will then undergo a reliability and discipline check. The project’s authors believe that this will allow abandoning the study of documents manually, make this process less labor-intensive, and shorten the hiring time.
Partially this is evidenced by the experience of integrating AI into the work of other government authorities – the Ministry of Defense or the Federal Reserve, which saved millions of dollars and thousands of working hours.alement. But, as reported by the insiders, not everyone supports the plans of the State Department.
The American Foreign Service Association, which defends the interests of department employees, has already asked to clarify, among other things, what is happening, the use of AI, with the obligations of the State Department. In question is The minority equality act of 1980, which is supposed to protect the rights and give equal opportunities to people of ethnic and racial minorities.
Such a question is especially relevant given the controversy surrounding a few-year-old statement by the current president: he said that he does not believe and trust “diversity, equity, and inclusion”. Recognizing that Trump’s rhetoric is far from the main source of threats is simple: in the coming years, the White House may have other tenants.
What are the Department’s deeper, more fundamental ethical issues? AI can help eliminate overt discrimination by focusing on features and records. However, it is essential to check for flaws and errors in the correct choice of information.
The algorithms themselves can rarely be calculated without prejudice. Therefore, we must actively audit the decision-making process with computer help – this will benefit both employers and employees.
