The New York City Council took decisive action to mandate bias audits of automated employment decision tools (AEDTs) used to evaluate employees for promotion or candidates for employment in New York City, signaling that the risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are becoming an increasing regulatory concern. Local Law 144, also known as the NYC Bias Audit Law, is the first of its kind to codify independent, impartial bias audits in law.

As part of this regulation, employers (and employment agencies) are required to make a summary of the results of the bias audit publicly available on their website, increasing the transparency of these systems and allowing applicants to make more informed decisions about their interactions with them. Employers are also required to notify candidates and employees about the use of an AEDT, the characteristics that it will consider, and their instructions on how to request accommodations or an alternative selection procedure. In this blog post, we outline the protected characteristics that must be analysed for the bias audit and what to do if you do not have this data.