Exclusionary Algorithms: Jobaline’s Voice Analyzer » Cyborgology

Jobaline is a company that helps hourly wage employers obtain and sort job candidates using mobile applications. It promises to both expand the applicant pool, and then produce the strongest candidates from that pool through prescreening. Here’s how it works: Employers give Jobaline the criteria that they’re looking for—education, skills, language fluency, etc.—and in some cases provide specific questions to ask applicants. Jobaline collects this information from applicants, and uses an algorithm to provide the employer with candidates of best fit. Although the employer has ultimate decision-making power, Jobaline’s algorithm significantly increases the odds of some applicants getting the position, while decreasing the odds for others. Jobaline’s latest innovation is Voice Analyzer, a program that identifies the emotional response a particular voice is likely to elicit.