The use of artificial intelligence to aid in companies’ sensitive decision making has long made U.S. regulators wary, particularly for its potential to supercharge human bias.

But as worker shortages prompt widespread recruitment pushes, AI proponents say the technology, far from being risky, could help companies make hiring decisions fairer—not just faster.

The so-called Great Resignation, a mass restructuring of the workforce that coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, continues to loom large for companies, with surveys of corporate leadership showing staffing issues remain among the most pressing near-term risks. Many have turned to AI to bulk up their recruitment muscle, despite perennial warnings from regulators and experts of the potential for algorithms to effectively learn from and then magnify human biases.

Proponents, though, argue that removing the human element can actually help. Output from AI can be readily audited, and computers stripped of some of the hidden biases that can lurk in a person’s mind. A computer doesn’t have a hometown, didn’t go to college and doesn’t have hobbies, so won’t unconsciously warm to a friendly candidate the way a real recruiter might. Read more.