AI-Based Discrimination Top Of The EEOC's Draft Enforcement Plan

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") has started 2023 with an announcement that it intends to increase enforcement efforts aimed at discrimination resulting from the use of Artificial Intelligence assisted employment related decision tools. On January 10, 2023, the EEOC published its Draft Strategic Enforcement Plan ("SEP") in the Federal Register for the fiscal years 2023-2027. For the past decade, the EEOC has issued SEPs to establish "subject matter priorities and strategies to integrate the EEOC's private, public, and federal sector activities." For the first time, and at the top of the draft Enforcement Plan's list for "Eliminating Barriers in Recruitment and Hiring Practices," is a focus on "the use of automatic systems, including artificial intelligence or machine learning, to target advertisements, recruit applicants, or make or assist in hiring decisions where such systems intentionally exclude or adversely impact protected groups." Through