by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
For representational purpose only
By Arnav Joshi,
While much of the world is busy worrying about losing jobs to automation in the future (and this is overstated), what has crept past for over a decade is that automated systems (to most, Artificial Intelligence, or AI) already play a major role in whether or not — and how — we get the jobs we still have, and these are used by a steadily growing number of Indian and multinational companies.
The current breed of algorithmically-driven, automated decision-making systems warrant our attention and alarm. All but ubiquitous, particularly in mass hiring, these systems are largely opaque as to their decision-making process, potentially making many unethical (or illegal) decisions, whilst dehumanising the hiring process in general.
Usually, the bigger the company, the more the applicants, the wider the automation, and larger the potential of being “wronged” by a machine. Lured in by sales pitches peppered with higher productivity and lower costs and attrition, who wouldn’t want to use them?
There are benefits, but they don’t outweigh the concerns yet. What often goes unseen is how the secrecy around the deployment of these systems (ironically, in part owing to the fear of them being gamed) combined with a lack of both awareness and adequate legal safeguards creates a deadly cocktail of misuse of personal data, automated discrimination, and abject uncertainty for hundreds of millions of job-seekers.
So what does an applicant drowning in rejection emails do? The Guardian, in a rather click baiting-ly titled piece, “How to persuade a robot that you should get the job”, (inadvertently) offers up some solutions, seemingly suggesting that there are ways in which you and I can, in fact, fight back against the machine.
After highlighting the plight of the job-seeker in the age of AI, towards the end, where one expects a silver lining, the article gets into how people discuss and offer various ways to stress-test and “game” the system. One ludicrous solution comes up (citing “an HR employee for a major technology company”) — slipping words such as “Oxford” and “Cambridge” into your CV in invisible text to pass automated screenings. It may not be The Guardian’s, but it’s someone’s solution, arguably offered to almost 25 million readers, without raising the red flag about its potential futility.
Complex machine learning systems that parse and analyse things like CVs to assess candidates are not yet the stuff of Elon Musk’s worst nightmare, but they’re not so gullible either. For starters, many of these systems use tonnes of other data points — social media posts, video essays, scroll speed, text entered (and deleted), and much more is logged and analysed. The systems learn quickly and constantly from this perennial supply of training data, using incredibly complex neural networks we cannot yet adequately comprehend, to draw correlations they themselves cannot justify. Just how many things can a candidate hope to adapt to for a system he knows nothing about?
Michael Veale, a prominent researcher in automated decision systems at the University College London adds that “While there are a lot of studies lately pointing to how individuals can ‘fool’ machine learning systems, they tend to require people to have access to the systems already. That’s a cybersecurity problem more than anything.” And that even where a candidate thinks he or she may succeed, “It is definitely possible to adapt systems if they are being gamed, but it’s not assured it will happen. More likely than not, attempts at gaming will just make systems useless.”
What would it take a system like this to game the gamer? Not much at all. Would an application that would otherwise have been selected by such a system be binned because it attempted to use invisible ink? A raised eyebrow? A certain number of words per minute? We just don’t know. Systems also change from company to company and vary by narrow contexts — there are no catch-all solutions.
What we do know is that someone hoping to achieve a different (positive) outcome thanks to slapdash measures is likely to come out feeling far more dejected when rejected — for if even gaming didn’t work, they must really not be good enough. That is not it, the problem (most often) is not with the applicant. First and foremost, this is the message that needs to go out.
What should you really be doing? There is no quick-fix solution, and not as simple as invisible ink. The silver lining, however, is that the movement towards greater fairness, accountability and transparency is already well under way. Long overdue updates in data protection regulations are also on the anvil, including in India, which will directly challenge many of the automated hiring solutions companies currently offer, severely restricting complete automation as well as what data they can gather, how they gather it and what they can do with it — a big departure from the current free-for-all data (mis)use.
As interim measures, candidates should first work towards making themselves more aware about the level and scale of automation, and asking the right (and difficult) questions of their potential employers. While polite emails may not get clear answers, in more severe instances where you feel you may have been unfairly discriminated against by an automated system, consider taking a slightly more formal, legal approach.
When it comes to hiring, there are already laws that require employers to account for equality, anti-discrimination and disparate impact — and these apply to an algorithm as much as they do to hiring manager John Doe. While systems can (in some cases) be designed to ignore certain attributes in an attempt at fairness and equality, this is not a comprehensive solution (for technical reasons to do with machine learning that I won’t get into here).
When companies know they are unlikely to be able to prove that their automated hiring process was (legally) fair, a letter from your lawyer or professional association will get them breaking into a sweat.
There is also fantastic academic and data activism research taking place in many parts of the world, applying various methodologies, old and new, attempting to reveal the many issues with widely used automation systems, holding their makers and users to account. What researchers often lack is data, being outside actors, locked out of the companies they would like to audit. Use your data for good — contribute it meaningfully to sound, ethical research which needs it to effect change.
For the companies themselves, should growing awareness and potential legal challenges prompt a rethink, Veale suggests that rather than over-reliance on automation and trying to remove the human element altogether, “They should be investing in ways to better help their employees sift through applications in computational ways. Data visualisation tools and user interfaces also enable people to deal with great numbers of applications, and they’re often lacking and lagging behind right now. Use computers to help humans make decisions, not to help humans offload decision-making responsibilities.”
(Arnav Joshi is a technology lawyer, Data and Society masters candidate and data ethics researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He can be reached via twitter @boom_lawyered)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
By Arun Kumar Das,
New Delhi : Complete modernisation of Indian Railways’ entire signalling system, including automation, at a whopping cost of Rs 78,000 crore is likely to get the nod among other safety measures in the forthcoming budget.
The Railways, which is likely to get Rs 65,000 crore as gross budgetary support (GBS) this time, an increase of Rs 10,000 crore from the last one, is going ahead full throttle to generate funds from internal resources and also from the market to meet the huge requirement for infrastructure development and safety-enhancement measures.
Though the budget for 2018-19 will reflect an attempt to reduce working expenses in the next fiscal, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal is leaving no stone unturned to replace the age-old tracks and upgrade signals as part of the national transporter’s safety requirements.
“The modernised automation of the signalling system aims to enhance safety and speed up train movement in a congested network,” a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Safety and passenger amenities are likely to get top billing in the rail budget — merged with the general budget since the last fiscal — when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the budget for 2018-19 on February 1. This will be the government’s last full budget ahead of the 2019 general election.
Replacement of the existing signalling network with a state-of-the-art system, proliferation of electronic interlocking systems, introduction of the European Train Control System Level-2 and mobile train radio communication systems are part of the upgradation agenda of the Railways, which has drawn up a detailed plan to change the system over the next five years.
Investment in the rail sector is crucial to step up the country’s growth momentum.
While the Rashtriya Rail Sanrakshya Kosh of Rs 1 lakh crore, created in the last budget, will continue to roll out Rs 20,000 crore in the next fiscal, the safety-enhancement measures are likely to get a further boost in this budget with the signalling automation move.
Laying of new lines, gauge conversion and doublings, besides massive electrification, will continue to be part of the budget.
The budget will be presented amid rising global crude oil prices and dipping of goods and services tax (GST) collections.
However, the government is likely to stick to its fiscal consolidation agenda and measures to curb the fiscal deficit, even as the middle class expects it to lighten the tax burden.
(Arun Kumar Das is a senior Delhi-based freelance journalist. He can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
Vishal Sikka, CEO, Infosys
By Fakir Balaji,
Bengaluru : The resilient Indian IT industry, which has been going through challenging times on multiple fronts, faced disruption in 2017 from increasing automation and the boardroom spat in software major Infosys spilling into the public domain.
Though the $150-billion (almost Rs 10 trillion) software sector reconciled to single digit export growth of 7-8 per cent for the 2017-18 fiscal, demand for more automation and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the services had put the vendors under pressure to hone the skills of their techies in the thousands and invest in new technologies to deliver on time for global enterprises.
“The Indian IT industry has been going through challenging times due to disruptive technologies, changing business models, rising protectionism, anti-globalisation and political and economic upheavals slowing its growth,” Nasscom President R. Chandrashekhar told IANS here.
Brexit and the sluggish demand in Europe also lowered the industry’s export growth from 9-10 per cent in the last fiscal (2016-17).
“The lower export outlook is a result of political and economic uncertainties impacting decision-making and discretionary spend,” the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) admitted in a statement.
Software exports contribute about 80 per cent to the industry’s revenue, with the US market generating 60 per cent of this, while the domestic market is projected to grow 10-11 per cent in 2017-18.
“Modernisation of clients’ IT operations and adoption of new technologies such as SaaS (Software As A Service) applications, cloud platforms, BI (Business Intelligence), cognitive and embedded analytics for digital projects of enterprise customers have been the industry’s growth drivers in 2017,” noted Chandrashekhar.
According to Nasscom Chairman Raman Roy, the industry has reinvented and is focused on building digital solution offerings through a combination of business model changes and investment in products and platforms.
Admitting that the industry would need bold and imaginative action to resolve issues, Chandrashekhar said opportunities were unfolding, as new sectors such as healthcare, energy, transportation and manufacturing were also adopting ICT solutions to sustain, compete and grow.
Besides traditional sectors like banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecom, retail, utilities, transport and logistics, a host of other verticals are investing in automation, AI, cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning, robotics and Internet of Things (IoT).
“Adoption of new technologies by traditional and new sectors like healthcare, education, gaming and entertainment, e-commerce, digital, public services and internet mobile are making the IT industry invest in skilling and reskilling their talent to sustain the momentum,” asserted Chandrashekhar.
On the flip side, innovation and tech start-ups have also faced headwinds, as angel investments and initial funding have sharply declined over the months.
“Though the ecosystem for start-ups is maturing and thriving on smart talent, raising funds to sustain growth and expand the market reach is challenging as their potential investors have become risk-averse due to uncertainty,” noted Chandrashekhar, a former Telecom Secretary and regulator.
Skill shortage in developed countries implied huge opportunities for the Indian IT industry to invest in building human capital talent and developing new platforms for digital business.
Hiring in traditional services like application development, testing and maintenance will, however, continue to decline due to automation and AI.
“The declining trend in hiring is secular and will continue due to automation, course correction and technology induced changes in the business models,” Chandrashekhar added.
Infosys, meanwhile, was rocked by boardroom battles that led to the dramatic exit of its first non-promoter Chief Executive, Vishal Sikka, in August and return of co-founder Nandan Nilekani as Chairman to steer it out of troubled times.
What began as an ethical issue for good governance the IT major is known for, had blown up into an open war between co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and its previous Board on the buyout of a US-based software firm (Panaya) and the severance pay to its former Chief Financial Officer, Rajiv Bhansal, in October 2015.
While Sikka tried to play down the issue, terming governance lapse as media speculation, a whistle-blower’s letter to the stock market regulator (SEBI) on the $200-million Panaya acquisition deal in February 2015 forced Murthy to red-flag the issue again with the Board members, including its former Chairman R. Seshasayee and Sikka.
When an international law firm and a risk consultancy found no evidence of wrongdoing in acquiring Panaya, Murthy insisted on making their report public and advised the Board to be transparent in all its decisions.
Unable to any more take the “unrelenting, baseless, malicious and personal attacks” on him, Sikka resigned on August 18 — for which the previous Board blamed Murthy. The open spat also brought down the company’s stock by 10 per cent in a single day.
The return of Nilekani, 62, as non-Executive Chairman on August 24 led to the exit of Seshasayee, co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan and Directors Jeffery S. Lehman and John Etchemendy.
Though Murthy was relieved to have Nilekani back to guide the company, he was not happy with the latter too finding no wrongdoing with the Panaya deal or excess compensation to Bansal.
To prove that “all is well that ends well”, the Infosys Board on December 1 hired former Capgemini veteran software geek Salil Parekh as its new Chief Executive from January 2.
(Fakir Balaji can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Markets, News, Politics, Technology
Dharmendra Pradhan
New Delhi : India cannot afford to ignore the challenges of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, and miss out on Industrial Revolution 4.0, Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.
“We had lost out on the opportunities created by the Industrial Revolution because of colonialism, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pointed out… and that we cannot afford to miss out on Industrial Revolution 4.0,” Pradhan said.
The Minister was addressing the 10th Global Skills Summit here organised by industry chamber Ficci. “We cannot ignore the challenges of technologies of the future like artificial intelligence and automation.”
“Our responsibility is to speed up the creation of an ecosystem in which all the workforce being added to the country every year gets a dignified life through a collective effort of all stakeholders,” he added.
Noting from his experience in India how technology is no longer a “high-end” product and has been adopted by the common people, the Minister said the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data did not properly reflect the level of skilling in the country.
“India has 50 crore people in the notified employable age of 15-59 years. Of this, the skilled manpower is just 10 per cent as against 50-90 per cent skilled manpower in the robust urban economies like Germany,” Pradhan said.
“It is not that just 10 per cent of India’s population is skilled. The biggest challenge is to put our records straight on the table,” he added.
In this connection, he recalled the marvellous architectural, engineering and technical skills of ancient India as seen in temple construction, for instance, that had spread to distant parts like Southeast Asia.
—IANS
