“Realistically, there are probably a lot of people in the company who shouldn’t be here,” the head of Meta (ex-Facebook) warned on July 1 in a message to the group’s employees. The little phrase came to fruition in spectacular fashion during August, as 60 Meta service providers, hired by Accenture in Austin, Texas, were fired at random, chosen by an algorithm.
The announcement was made to them via video conference with no specific justification for how the artificial intelligence had selected them, Business Insider says.
This event is not the first. Last year, a Russian company specialized in payment processing, Xsolla, had already used an algorithm to select 150 employees to be fired.
performance analysis
The latter then received an email from the CEO claiming that the “big data team” had analyzed their activity and categorized them as “unengaged and unproductive.”
The company, which works in the field of video games for the big names in the sector (Valve, Twitch, Epic Games, Ubisoft, etc.), had also been accused of spying on its employees.
france locks down
Similarly, Amazon delivery drivers have also lost their jobs due to the decision of an AI that constantly analyzes their efficiency. According to a Bloomberg survey, this automation of layoffs is less expensive, especially since the e-commerce giant had no difficulty, before the Covid-19 crisis, in finding drivers.
Such a situation remains, in the current state of the law, unlikely in France, where dismissal is much more closely supervised than in the United States, for example. It requires, for example, to be summoned by a natural person.
On the other hand, human resources are increasingly using algorithms for recruitment. Some startups are also specialized in this niche.
Source: BFM TV
