Swedish researchers have created an AI-powered automaton that is purportedly capable of conducting job interviews without any form of bias.
Tengai is a female automaton that has been specifically engineered to conduct interviews with prospective employees. Furhat Robotics, a technology corporation headquartered in Stockholm, is the creator of her.
Over the course of four years, scientists worked to create a computer interface that is capable of making subtle facial expressions and conversing in a manner similar to that of a human. They aimed to develop an object that “exudes a significantly less eerie or unfamiliar sensation than a conventional robot.”
Furhat Robotics collaborated with recruitment firm TNG in October to guarantee that job interviews were free of bias, as it is frequently observed that recruiting managers and recruiters are influenced by their prejudices when evaluating candidates..
Nevertheless, both organizations continued to strive to create a recruitment process that was “humanized.” This served as the impetus for the creation of Tengai.
“A recruiter typically makes a decision within five to 15 minutes, while it takes approximately seven seconds for an individual to form a first impression.” Elin Öberg Mårtenzon, TNG’s chief innovation officer, stated, “We are determined to challenge that.”
Unconscious bias is the phenomenon in which recruiting managers and recruiters make assumptions about a candidate’s competence based on their ethnicity, gender, education, appearance, or even informal conversations.
Tengai is not obligated to engage in small conversation with candidates, as opposed to human interviewers. She frequently poses all of her questions in the same order and with the same tone. This, according to researchers, contributes to the objective and equitable nature of the job interview.
Recruiters are provided with transcripts following the interview to assist them in determining whether a candidate is eligible for the subsequent stage of the recruiting process.
Tengai is scheduled to conduct genuine employment interviews in May after undergoing a series of trials that lasted for several months.
Already, researchers are in the process of creating an additional iteration of the automaton that is capable of conversing in English. By 2020, they intend to introduce this version of Tengai.
The development team aspires for Tengai to eventually reach a level of sophistication that would enable her to select a candidate without the assistance of a human recruiter.
