On the beginning of april, 2023, New York City Council has published final regulation to the deployed NYC144, a local law to amend its administrative code in the matters of the automated employment decision tools (AEDT). Being the first of its kind in the US with its final regulation done, the law promulgated at September of 2021 will be enforced by July 5, 2023.

This law is applied to employees and employers at NYC, for sure, however being the first of its kind in the US draws the attention to the type of processes such a legislation covers.

In the definition of the law, a hiring process that would fall into its regulation would have to apply “automated employment decision tool” considered as computational process that applies machine learning and other AI spectrum technology with the objective of scoring, classifying and recommend, outweighing humans in the decision making process.

Furthermore, not only the categories of processes being regulated is visible, NYC local legislation also points to the categories of concern one may observe in the process of deploying such technologies: human-centred, fairness AI, transparency and explainability. Setting three complementary ways of ensuring it:

Bias audition from independent auditor; Notification for employees of the use of such technology. Establishes penalties and fines on failure to comply.

In addition to its main objectives, the law also sustains the need for transparency about the results of bias audition, data collection and job qualifications and characteristics used as criteria by the employment decision tool. The fines are up to $500 for first violation and $1500 for subsequent violations.

Some critics say the law is fragile because of its narrow definition of process in which AI outweigh human decision. Nonetheless, its the first time we have a law to regulate this kind of AI application and its showing contemporary society that the connection between recent technology such as AI and our daily lives are more intertwined than ever. Local laws to regulate AI will be a common trend in the near future?