Weekly Quiz: AI Hiring Bots, Abortion Access, and Aging IT Infrastructure

1 2 const title = "AI Hiring Bots, Abortion Access, and Aging IT Infrastructure"; const date = "June 7, 2025"; const data = [ { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/WEB_WhenHumanResourcesIsNoLongerHuman_MAY2025-735x490.jpg", title: "Companies Are Outsourcing Job Interviews to AI. What Could Go Wrong?", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/human-resources-ai/", question: "From generating job descriptions to interviewing candidates, AI technology is taking over the hiring process. What is one of the most pressing concerns for researchers and ethicists when it comes to companies adopting AI hiring tools?", options: [ "Algorithmic bias and a lack of decision-making transparency", "The creation of a closed loop system, where machines evaluate machines when both job seekers and recruiters use AI", "Inconsistent compliance with region-specific labour laws and regulations", "Deprioritization of privacy and lack of clarity around the collection of biometric data", ], answer: "Algorithmic bias and a lack of decision-making transparency", correct: "Algorithmic bias and a lack of decision-making transparency—or “black box AI”—are the most pressing concerns for researchers and ethicists when it comes to AI hiring tools. Since many one-way interview tools rely on text-to-speech transcription, those individuals with speech impairments—or those who might have an accent, such as international students seeking entry-level jobs—are concerned that automated systems might unfairly penalize them. Using the case study of Pymetrics, author Mike Schellmann explains how standard hiring algorithms are engineered to identify statistical patterns among “high-performing” employees. Since individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in many companies due to historical biases, the algorithm often lacks training data from these demographics.", incorrect: "Algorithmic bias and a lack of decision-making transparency—or “black box AI”—are the most pressing concerns for researchers and ethicists when it comes to AI hiring tools. Since many one-way interview tools rely on text-to-speech transcription, those individuals with speech impairments—or those who might have an accent, such as international students seeking entry-level jobs—are concerned that automated systems might unfairly penalize them. Using the case study of Pymetrics, author Mike Schellmann explains how standard hiring algorithms are engineered to identify statistical patterns among “high-performing” employees. Since individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in many companies due to historical biases, the algorithm often lacks training data from these demographics.", }, { title: "The US Badly Needs Rare Minerals and Fresh Water. Guess Who Has Them?", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/the-us-badly-needs-rare-minerals-and-fresh-water-guess-who-has-them/", question: "The trade wars of the future will be battles over access to critical minerals and fresh water, and Canada is caught in the crosshairs. Donald Trump has referred to Canada’s fresh water supply as a “faucet” that he plans to use to address water shortages in the southern and central US. Why do experts say this goal is unrealistic?", options: [ "Diverting water across the border requires unanimous approval from all Canadian provinces", "The North American Water and Power Alliance has placed a cap on freshwater exports", "The necessary ecological and hydrological infrastructure doesn’t exist on the continent", "Most of Canada’s freshwater is locked in glaciers and is incapable of being transported", ], answer: "The necessary ecological and hydrological infrastructure doesn’t exist on the continent", correct: "Channelling northern water to the southern and central US would require the expenditure of untold billions of dollars and a complete ecological and hydrological reinvention of the continent. Outlandishly bold continental-scale infrastructure projects were products of the Cold War era—like the so-called North American Water and Power Alliance, or NAWAPA, which proposed to transport water from the north to the lower forty-eighth parallel and Mexico via a continent-long engineered trough. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, author of A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change, adds that the faucet that Trump refers to does not exist. Capturing more of the Columbia River, for example, which flows out of eastern British Columbia into the US Pacific Northwest, does not help the US with water needs in dry states.", incorrect: "Channelling northern water to the southern and central US would require the expenditure of untold billions of dollars and a complete ecological and hydrological reinvention of the continent. Outlandishly bold continental-scale infrastructure projects were products of the Cold War era—like the so-called North American Water and Power Alliance, or NAWAPA, which proposed to transport water from the north to the lower forty-eighth parallel and Mexico via a continent-long engineered trough. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, author of A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change, adds that the faucet that Trump refers to does not exist. Capturing more of the Columbia River, for example, which flows out of eastern British Columbia into the US Pacific Northwest, does not help the US with water needs in dry states.", }, { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/WAL_Web-Wells-Law_JUN25_002-1536x1024.jpg", title: "She Wanted to End Her Pregnancy. Her Abusive Partner Took Her to Court", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/she-wanted-to-end-her-pregnancy-her-abusive-partner-took-her-to-court/", question: "The day the Supreme Court of Canada heard the case of Tremblay v. Daigle remains one of the most dramatic days in its history. Chantale Daigle’s abusive ex took her to court to stop her from getting an abortion, and what followed became one of Canada’s most important legal battles over bodily autonomy. What legal precedent was set by this case?", options: [ "The court ruled that abortion access should be determined at the provincial level, rather than the federal level", "The court ruled that the legal status of a fetus must be determined on a case-by-case basis", "The court ruled that both biological parents must be consulted before a pregnancy can be terminated", "The court ruled that a fetus has no legal personality, and that only a woman has the right to decide whether or not to continue with a pregnancy", ], answer: "The court ruled that a fetus has no legal personality, and that only a woman has the right to decide whether or not to continue with a pregnancy", correct: "In the case of Tremblay v. Daigle, the court had to determine the central legal question: “Does the law, viewed objectively, recognize fetal rights?” Arguments were brief, and it took the nine judges just an hour to agree that only a woman can decide whether to carry her pregnancy to term; that a fetus has no legal personality, and the father has no veto. The injunction that had previously been issued against Daigle was lifted and, with it, the contempt-of-court charge. Abortion was the woman’s decision and her decision alone.", incorrect: "In the case of Tremblay v. Daigle, the court had to determine the central legal question: “Does the law, viewed objectively, recognize fetal rights?” Arguments were brief, and it took the nine judges just an hour to agree that only a woman can decide whether to carry her pregnancy to term; that a fetus has no legal personality, and the father has no veto. The injunction that had previously been issued against Daigle was lifted and, with it, the contempt-of-court charge. Abortion was the woman’s decision and her decision alone.", }, { title: "Ottawa’s Tech Strategy Is So Broken, Even Consultants Are Begging Us to Fix It", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/ottawa-tech-strategy-is-broken/", question: "Between 2017 and 2022, Canada spent about $20 billion on IT services with minimal return on investment. Which company was the government’s single biggest tech vendor?", options: [ "PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)", "International Business Machines (IBM)", "Deloitte", "Microsoft", ], answer: "International Business Machines (IBM)", correct: "Between 2017 and 2022, Canada spent about $20 billion on IT services. That is an enormous pile of money. But 40 percent of these contracts went to just thirteen companies, with more than half of those going to three companies alone. These numbers are staggering because Canada is not lacking in firms capable of delivering IT solutions—slightly more than a fifth of these procurement dollars is spread out over more than 7,000 firms. The government’s single biggest IT infrastructure vendor, at nearly $2 billion per year, is IBM Canada: the company responsible for the Phoenix pay debacle. And despite their role in the fiasco —which included bugs, delays, and cost overruns—the Investigative Journalism Foundation reports that IBM continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to manage the plague-ridden system.", incorrect: "Between 2017 and 2022, Canada spent about $20 billion on IT services. That is an enormous pile of money. But 40 percent of these contracts went to just thirteen companies, with more than half of those going to three companies alone. These numbers are staggering because Canada is not lacking in firms capable of delivering IT solutions—slightly more than a fifth of these procurement dollars is spread out over more than 7,000 firms. The government’s single biggest IT infrastructure vendor, at nearly $2 billion per year, is IBM Canada: the company responsible for the Phoenix pay debacle. And despite their role in the fiasco —which included bugs, delays, and cost overruns—the Investigative Journalism Foundation reports that IBM continues to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to manage the plague-ridden system.", }, ]; The post Weekly Quiz: AI Hiring Bots, Abortion Access, and Aging IT Infrastructure first appeared on The Walrus.