Nathaniel M. Glasser, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Law360, in “‘Don’t Believe All the Hype’: Lawyers Must Scrutinize AI Tech,” by Michele Gorman. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Attorneys should be wary of falling in love with the promises of artificial intelligence, regardless of the “hype,” panelists at a Chicago conference said Thursday, urging lawyers to first explore how the technology could help business before plunging into AI.
At the opening session of the 58th Annual Corporate Counsel Institute at Northwestern University School of Law, panelists covered a range of AI topics, spreading the message that attorneys should apply new technology with care.
“Don’t believe all the hype. But also don’t necessarily believe all the skeptics, because I think there is a path in the middle,” said Nathaniel Glasser, a member of Epstein Becker Green’s Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice. "You just have to look closely at each product and make a really thoughtful decision as to how to best implement and mitigate risk in the right circumstance." ...
But with new technology and software comes liability, and users should evaluate tools before they fully adopt a new program, according to the panel. A company's due diligence, which must involve the necessary stakeholders, includes meeting the vendor, seeing a product demonstration and developing a plan to conduct an adverse impact analysis and a validation study, Glasser said.
He cautioned the lawyers against skipping due diligence and immediately going live with new software, not only to protect the company from a legal standpoint, but also as a business case.
"Part of what validation is doing is making sure that the algorithm is making accurate and predictive decisions," he said. "You want to make sure that you're getting your money's worth, so you have a business reason to conduct a validation study as well." ...
Glasser also gave examples of how businesses are increasingly using AI to help human resources departments recruit and hire. The tools analyze job postings, give recommendations to target specific demographics, assess applicants' soft skills and match those against current top performers to predict the most suitable employees.
Additionally, digital interview platforms use AI to evaluate a candidate's tone, language and facial expressions to predict whether that person is suitable for a role.
"In theory, when you have the best fit, those people are going to stay longer and you have less to worry about in terms of retention issues," Glasser said.
