AI can be used to reduce human bias, but if we’re not careful, it can also learn it. In this episode of Spotlight On: AI, Daniel Yanisse, Co-Founder and CEO of Checkr and Accel partner Rich Wong discuss their concerns, hopes, and advice for building a fairer future.
“Be self-aware. You know where bias may be, so be cautious where there is AI in those business processes. What becomes dangerous is when it is a black box, and you don’t think about how to apply it tactically.” – Daniel Yanisse
Born in France, Daniel's robotics passion led him from college in Switzerland to the Silicon Valley. After roles at NASA and Cisco, he was drawn to the allure of startups. In 2013, he and his co-founder, Jonathan Perichon, realized background checks were a significant bottleneck to the on-demand ecosystem emerging at the time. To fix it, they decided to build an API for background checks.
After YCombinator (S14), Checkr was born. Since Accel’s partnership in 2014, we've seen Checkr evolve into the leading background check platform with a clear mission to provide fair chance hiring opportunities to the 80 million Americans with criminal records, a mission made possible through artificial intelligence.
Creating a fair and accurate background check involves using AI to navigate a complex and messy sea of unorganized data. Checkr’s AI initially focused on crime classification and expanded to address broader hiring process issues and mitigate human prejudices. Today, it can identify human biases in the recruiting process, pinpoint discrepancies in compensation, and scrutinize interview records for potential race or gender biases.
There are many reasons to be optimistic about AI – productivity, accessibility, and reduction in human error. At the same time, there are valid concerns around issues like bias. It is a complex problem that demands a dual solution – AI can help humans by pointing out their existing biases, and humans can reciprocate the effort by training AI against it. We discuss the concept and more on this episode of Spotlight On.
Conversation highlights:
- 00:00 - Daniel’s upbringing in France and early interests that inspired his move to the United States
- 05:00 - The experience with background checks that inspired the creation of Checkr
- 07:30 - Getting into YCombinator and meeting early investors through “speed-dating”
- 09:10 - Checkr’s early days meeting needs of the booming on-demand economy, and gaining early customer traction
- 11:40 - The inspiration behind Checkr’s mission to build a fairer future by reducing the imbalances and biases in the hiring process
- 19:50 – How Checkr has been using artificial intelligence since its earliest days to make sense of the background check data, ensure accurate classification of crimes, check for bias in the process
- 26:00 - Advice for founders who are excited about the potential of artificial intelligence but want to reduce AI biases that exist in machine learning models
- 35:00 - Closing thoughts and a warning about the technological divides that may come from AI progress
Host: Rich Wong, Partner at Accel
Featuring: Daniel Yanisse, CEO & Co-Founder of Checkr
Explore more episodes from the season:
- Episode 01: AssemblyAI's Dylan Fox on building an AI company during a period of radical change
- Episode 02: Roblox’s Daniel Sturman on Building Great Teams in the AI Era
- Episode 03: Ada’s Mike Murchison on how AI is revolutionizing customer service
- Episode 04: Merge’s Shensi Ding on powering the next generation of AI SaaS companies
- Episode 05: Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang on the most powerful technological advancement of our time
- Episode 06: Bard’s Jack Krawczyk on the birth of Google’s AI chatbot and the creative potential that lies ahead
- Episode 07: Synthesia’s Victor Riparbelli on creating an environment to harness AI benefits and reduce harms
- Episode 08: Ironclad’s Cai GoGwilt on a decade of anticipating the transformative power of AI
- Episode 09: Checkr’s Daniel Yanisse on tackling bias in people and AI
- Episode 10: Cinder’s Glen Wise on trust and safety threats and holding AI accountable
- Episode 11: Transcend’s Kate Parker on putting data back into the hands of users in an AI-driven world
- Episode 12: Arm’s Rene Haas on building the brain of artificial intelligence
