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This is really dumb if you understand how Facebook's advertising algorithm works. It's going to optimize job ads towards people who click job ads. Young peopl

by cm2012 8y ago

This is really dumb if you understand how Facebook's advertising algorithm works. It's going to optimize job ads towards people who click job ads. Young people are more likely to be looking for jobs than older people, and thus click job ads more. [1] So Facebook's ad algorithm's are going to target younger people because it's more cost effective, because they want to see these type of ads more by far. By the data, older people do not want to see these type of ads and thus are not shown them. If you did show it to them, they would complain about bad ads (anyone who does FB advertising gets a report from FB on how many people Xed out an ad, and too many is really bad for your account) Nothing to do with worker effectiveness or how HR treats older applicants, which is what 95% of the comments in this thread are taking the opportunity to talk about. [1] " About 60% of Millennials are currently open to a new job opportunity and are by far the most likely generation to switch jobs. To support that, 21% of Millennials in 2016 reported switching jobs within the past year, compared to roughly 7% of gen Xers and other non-Millennials. " https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2018/01/22/millennials-arent-job-hopping-young-people-are-5-things-to-keep-in-mind/#26d1e0ab10d8 https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2018/01/22/millennia...

gowld 8y ago
Comments may be offtopic, but I don't see what's "dumb" about it. The article is about discrimination, and you described how Facebook's algorithm learns to discriminate.
- cm2012 8y ago
  That's fair. But discrimination in where you advertise (with the goal of saving 2/3 of your total cash outlay, rather than ruling out a group as a goal) is a whole different kettle of fish compared to discrimination in the HR process. People shouldn't think Facebook ads have anything to do with the latter.
kartan 8y ago
> So Facebook's ad algorithm's are going to target younger people because it's more cost effective Because there is a technical explanation doesn't means that it is not discrimination. Actually discrimination had a lot to do about getting an individual differently because he/she is part of a group. We didn't baked a law, the machine did. It is not a good defense in a trial, or at least I hope it is not. A good read on this topic http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/qa-should-artificial-intelligence-be-legally-required-explain-itself http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/qa-should-artificial-...
- cm2012 8y ago
  Discriminating based on interest in job postings is very different than discriminating based on type of applicant. If you post a job ad in a job center, it's going to be seen by way more young people and older people won't get as much of a chance to see it. Same if you post job ads in colleges. Both of those common practices are more discriminatory than what FB's algorithm is doing here.

by cm2012 8y ago

gowld 8y ago

Comments may be offtopic, but I don't see what's "dumb" about it. The article is about discrimination, and you described how Facebook's algorithm learns to discriminate.

cm2012 8y ago
That's fair. But discrimination in where you advertise (with the goal of saving 2/3 of your total cash outlay, rather than ruling out a group as a goal) is a whole different kettle of fish compared to discrimination in the HR process. People shouldn't think Facebook ads have anything to do with the latter.

kartan 8y ago

> So Facebook's ad algorithm's are going to target younger people because it's more cost effective Because there is a technical explanation doesn't means that it is not discrimination. Actually discrimination had a lot to do about getting an individual differently because he/she is part of a group. We didn't baked a law, the machine did. It is not a good defense in a trial, or at least I hope it is not. A good read on this topic http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/qa-should-artificial-intelligence-be-legally-required-explain-itself http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/qa-should-artificial-...

cm2012 8y ago
Discriminating based on interest in job postings is very different than discriminating based on type of applicant. If you post a job ad in a job center, it's going to be seen by way more young people and older people won't get as much of a chance to see it. Same if you post job ads in colleges. Both of those common practices are more discriminatory than what FB's algorithm is doing here.