Technology and reinforcement of privilege

Among many of my students who have graduated recently, as well as children of our family friends, there is sense of frustration and gloom. Recent graduates are struggling to find jobs – any jobs – broadly related to their field of study. A recent graduate in computer science from a very rigorous programme told me that he had applied to well over 250 jobs and had not gotten a single interview. News magazines are reporting students coming out of nationally recognised programmes in science and engineering applying for well over 400 jobs without any success. Degrees and majors that were considered safe and reliable to land decent entry level jobs just five years ago are facing monumental challenges. In the US, the unemployment rate for 22-27 year olds with a college degree is higher than the national average. The trend of unemployment among STEM majors is particularly noteworthy. While there is debate among economists about the exact cause, there is evidence that entry level jobs are being reshaped (or are disappearing) because of the rapid rise of AI. But it is not simply that basic programming can now be done by an AI assistant and hence there are no jobs, it is also that AI systems are being used by students themselves to apply to a larger number of jobs without putting in the effort to craft careful and thoughtful applications, and AI systems are being used by potential employers to sort through this massive pool of applications thereby further reinforcing biases. On the other hand, among our family friends and our students, those who have found jobs have found it not by applying to hundreds of postings, but through the power of their network. These students (or their parents) knew someone who knew someone and that is how they were able to get noticed by the employer. Some students got help from their professors who called up a friend or a former student in a company. In my limited experience, the successful student may or may not be the one who is the smartest or the most gifted, but one who had a better network. They did not need to apply to hundreds of jobs. A phone call or a positive note from someone who is connected enabled these students to bypass the intricate system and filters and gets their foot in the door. This means that those who come from modest backgrounds, or did not get to rub shoulders with the privileged, will face much higher barriers – even if they are better qualified. Most will perhaps continue to receive the same bland auto-generated rejection email, if that. The current job market is not the only example. For graduate and post-doctoral applications, the numbers of those who seek those positions have also skyrocketed in the last couple of years. It is not hard to see that many, if not most, of these applications are generated by AI. Those on the other end are also relying on AI to sift through many of these applications. While the system gets jammed on one end, here again, the ones who are likely to make it through are those who come with connections. An email, a text or a phone call from a known colleague can do wonders – while those without those connections have to rely on randomness or luck. I recognise that it would be naïve to imagine that somewhere there was a world built on meritocracy that has now been upended. Privilege, network, connections have always been the resistance-free lane of progress – but if there was a slower lane before, it is getting jammed to the point of being completely blocked. What is perhaps more troubling is that not only do we not call it out, we are instead eager to embrace, support and promote the systems that are creating a fortified world of haves and have-nots. We are deluding ourselves thinking of technological systems as great equalisers, when in fact without guardrails or serious reflection they are only reinforcing ideas that are opposite of fair chance, opportunity and merit.