In a surprisingly cutting-edge move, the State of Illinois has enacted the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act. Public Act 101-260 becomes effective January 1, 2020.
An employer seeking to record video interviews and use artificial intelligence to analyze job applicant videos must, before the interview, 1) notify each applicant that artificial intelligence may be used to analyze the applicant’s video interview and consider the applicant’s fitness for the position; and 2) provide the applicant with information of how the artificial intelligence works and what characteristics it uses to evaluate applicants; and 3) obtain consent from the applicant to so evaluated.
The Act also restricts the employer from sharing applicant videos, except with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to evaluate the applicant’s fitness for a position. If an applicant requests that the video interview be destroyed, the employer must comply within thirty days after receiving the request. The employer must also instruct any other persons who received a copy of the applicant’s video to delete all copies. Those individuals also must comply.
Unfortunately, the Act lacks detail such as, a definition of “artificial intelligence”, whether the notice must be written or verbal, and what happens if an employer violates the Act. The legislation will need further revisions and clarifications to remedy some of these deficits. Even though few employers are currently using artificial intelligence, undoubtedly this is an area of significant potential development as technology continues to evolve the workplace. Given that this Act fails to consider certain document retention requirements or even “litigation holds”, please check with your Tressler attorney before using artificial intelligence in interviews.
For more information about this article, contact Tressler attorney John O’Driscoll at jodriscoll@tresslerllp.com.