Artificial Intelligence Bias and the Amplification of Inequalities in the Labor Market

Mahmut Ozer, Matjaz Perc and Hayri Eren Suna ()
Additional contact information
Mahmut Ozer: Turkish Grand National Assembly National Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission, Ankara, Türkiye
Matjaz Perc: Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Hayri Eren Suna: Ministry of National Education, Paris Education Attaché, Paris, France

Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 2024, vol. 69, issue 69, 159-168

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is now present in nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Furthermore, while this AI augmentation is generally beneficial, or at worst, nonproblematic, some instances warrant attention. In this study, we argue that AI bias resulting from training data sets in the labor market can significantly amplify minor inequalities, which later in life manifest as permanently lost opportunities and social status and wealth segregation. The Matthew effect is responsible for this phenomenon, except that the focus is not on the rich getting richer, but on the poor becoming even poorer. We demonstrate how frequently changing expectations for skills, competencies, and knowledge lead to AI failing to make impartial hiring decisions. Specifically, the bias in the training data sets used by AI affects the results, causing the disadvantaged to be overlooked while the privileged are frequently chosen. This simple AI bias contributes to growing social inequalities by reinforcing the Matthew effect, and it does so at much faster rates than previously. We assess these threats by studying data from various labor fields, including justice, security, healthcare, human resource management, and education.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; bias; Matthew effect; social inequality; misinformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/9BD5DC27157A4493867371F0B25EAC36 (application/pdf)
https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/tr/journal/jecs/ar ... -in-the-labor-market (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:69:y:2024:i:0:p:159-168

DOI: 10.26650/JECS2023-1415085

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economy Culture and Society is currently edited by Veysel Bozkurt

More articles in Journal of Economy Culture and Society from Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Istanbul University Press Operational Team (Ertuğrul YAŞAR) ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).