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This Man Was Fired by a Computer -- Real AI Could Have Saved Him

posted by martyb on Wednesday July 04 2018, @01:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the No-irrational-AI-for-me...-make-mine-real! dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Ibrahim Diallo was allegedly fired by a machine. Recent news reports relayed the escalating frustration he felt as his security pass stopped working, his computer system login was disabled, and finally he was frogmarched from the building by security personnel. His managers were unable to offer an explanation, and powerless to overrule the system.

Some might think this was a taste of things to come as artificial intelligence is given more power over our lives. Personally, I drew the opposite conclusion. Diallo was sacked because a previous manager hadn't renewed his contract on the new computer system and various automated systems then clicked into action. The problems were not caused by AI, but by its absence.

The systems displayed no knowledge-based intelligence, meaning they didn't have a model designed to encapsulate knowledge (such as human resources expertise) in the form of rules, text and logical links. Equally, the systems showed no computational intelligence – the ability to learn from datasets – such as recognising the factors that might lead to dismissal. In fact, it seems that Diallo was fired as a result of an old-fashioned and poorly designed system triggered by a human error. AI is certainly not to blame – and it may be the solution.

This man was fired by a computer

What do you guys think about hiring and firing by AI? Would you agree with the article's premise?

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:53AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:53AM (#702928) Journal

    Good! That's exactly how the system should work - it's how I would HOPE that the system would work at any office that works on sensitive material, and which might be in real trouble if a rogue or disgruntled employee decided to wreak havoc for vengance after being fired. You SHOULDN'T have a manager or someone else be able to intervene midway through offboarding an employee and stop the process, skip steps, or overrule decisions like "we need to revoke access.

    I disagree. Who makes these decisions to fire people in the first place? The managers. Why shouldn't they be able to change their minds?

    And what happens when the rogue/disgruntled employee is in charge of the system that fires people without recourse? Sounds like they can prevent their own system from firing themselves.